Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade.

Across America debate rages about single motherhood and its negative impact on morality. Female sexuality and its natural by-product--unwanted babies--invite public comment and government solutions. Critics of the welfare state label black women "brood sows" who threaten the American way of life.

Readers of the above might assume the passage describes only the current controversy over unwed motherhood. Rickie Solinger has found these issues also dominated discussions about unwed mothers in the 1950s. In 1957 illegitimate births in the United States exceeded 200,000, a figure Solinger considers a serious underestimate. Her book documents the American response to illegitimate pregnancy in the decades following World War II and examines the options available to black and white women.

Solinger argues that race was the most important demographic factor in determining society's response to an illegitimate pregnancy. The typical white unwed mother in the 1950s was portrayed as a victim. Her sexual activity and pregnancy signified illness, usually a response to her unhappy family life. The woman could redeem herself through a stay in a maternity home, after which she would place her child up for adoption. This solution neatly dove-tailed with the increased demand in the 1950s for white babies to adopt. In contrast the typical black unwed mother was seen as either oversexed or lacking in proper cultural restraints. Because blacks supposedly loved babies and because social agencies decided few opportunities existed for black adoption, these women kept their illegitimate children. According to Solinger, "white unwed mothers were portrayed as a threat to the moral integrity of the family," while "black unwed mothers were often construed as an economic threat to that same white family".

Much of the negative response to black unwed mothers can be traced to the rapid expansion of the public welfare system during this time period, according to Solinger. Although the percentage of nonwhite unmarried mothers receiving Aid for Dependent Children (ADC) declined from 25.0 to 19.1 from 1950 to 1960, this number was high when compared to similar white recipients (6.0 per cent in 1950 and 6.1 per cent in 1960). States responded to this welfare burden by passing "suitable home" laws, which barred many black women from receiving ADC benefits.

Solinger's book provides much useful information on the racist forces that tried to limit benefits to black unwed mothers, although it portrays a situation that is much less ambivalent than reality. Why, for example, did the 1935 Social Security Act extend benefits to unwed mothers at all? Solinger clearly documents the pressure to reduce benefits to single black mothers, but does not reconcile this with the large numbers of women who nevertheless continued to receive aid. Although half of the states had suitable home laws by 1960, the other half did not; this would seem to indicate that black single mothers and unwed mothers in general had a force of advocates.

Solinger's fascinating chapter on white unwed motherhood describes the shift from environmental explanations to those based on psychological illness. By the 1950s psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers no longer focused on moral weakness or feeble-mindedness, as experts had during the Progressive Era. Instead they attributed unwed pregnancies to pathology caused by a dysfunctional family. The obsessive focus of these experts on the failings of the family offers some interesting directions for future research. The 1950s also ushered in a new faith in human mutability. An illegitimate pregnancy no longer meant permanent shame and ruin. By putting her child up for adoption, a woman could reenter society; in fact, surrendering the child was integral to her cure.(1)

Solinger argues that the theory of unwed pregnancy as pathology was widely accepted. But obviously most premaritally pregnant women were not considered mentally ill. They went quickly into convenient marriages and became wives and mothers. Solinger's theory makes more sense if we factor in the age of the unwed mother. The intense focus on the role of the parents suggest to this reader that the pathological pregnancy may well have often been an adolescent pregnancy. In addition the option of a maternity home and adoption (as opposed to a "shotgun" marriage or keeping the child to raise alone) would seem to be most appropriate for younger women. It is interesting to note (as Solinger does) that placing the unwed mother in a home and putting the child up for adoption completely removed the putative father from any responsibility for his actions.

Solinger's book is at its best when describing life in the maternity homes. She covers the day-to-day routine of the unwed mothers, their hopes and aspirations, and their feelings about the mixed blessing offered by the homes. While grateful for the shelter the homes offered, the women expressed their irritation at the dour classes scheduled for their improvement. Unanswered in the book is whether the public felt the new option of a maternity home and adoption encouraged premarital sex by alleviating its burdensome consequences.

Curiously, although Solinger would like to focus on race, this reviewer found these sections of her book the less satisfying. The book should have included statistical comparisons of the two races as to what percentage of the premaritally pregnant married, gave birth to illegitimate children, entered maternity homes, and placed their children up for adoption versus keeping their children to raise. Also, too many important actors in this drama are unidentified. Which policy makers favored punishing black single mothers and what motivated their actions? Who was their constituency? How did they fit into the turbulent political climate of the 1960s? Of similar importance would be a description of how the information provided by countless studies undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s influenced public opinion and policy. Still, Solinger's book will prove invaluable to scholars of women and the family wishing to know more about what was often a shameful and well-kept secret.

Susan Harari University of Michigan 

ENDNOTE 

1. According to Solinger, before the 1950s the "stain of illegitimacy" would have made adoption of such a child highly unlikely.