| Description |
1 online resource (xiii, 325 pages) : illustrations, maps |
| Contents |
Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- CHAPTER 1 The Poor and Pregnant -- CHAPTER 2 Immorality and Motherhood: 1830-1870 -- CHAPTER 3 Depopulation and Motherhood: 1870-1914 -- CHAPTER 4 Morality and Motherhood: Women's Voices -- CHAPTER 5 Charity and Welfare for the Pregnant Poor -- CHAPTER 6 Charity and Welfare for New Mothers and Infants -- CHAPTER 7 Mothers on Welfare -- CHAPTER 8 Birth Control and Abortion -- CHAPTER 9 Infanticide and Child Abandonment -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Archival Sources -- Selected Bibliography -- Index |
| Summary |
Rachel Fuchs shows how poor urban women in Paris negotiated their environment, and in some respects helped shape it, in their attempt to cope with their problems of poverty and pregnancy. She reveals who the women were and provides insight into the nature of their work and living arrangements. With dramatic detail, and drawing on actual court testimonies, Fuchs portrays poor women's childbirth experiences, their use of charity and welfare, and their recourse to abortion and infanticide as desperate alternatives to motherhood. Fuchs also provides a comprehensive description of philanthropic and welfare institutions and outlines the relationship between the developing welfare state and official conceptions of womanhood. She traces the evolution of a new morality among policymakers in which secular views, medical hygiene, and a new focus on the protection of children replaced religious morality as a driving force in policy formation. Combining social, intellectual, and medical history, this study of poor mothers in nineteenth-century society illuminates both class and gender relations in Paris, and illustrates the connection between social policy and the way ordinary women lived their lives |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-314) and index |
| Notes |
In English |
|
Print version record |
| Subject |
Poor women -- France -- Paris -- History -- 19th century
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Unmarried mothers -- France -- Paris -- History -- 19th century
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Maternal and infant welfare -- France -- Paris -- History -- 19th century
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Welfare recipients -- France -- Paris -- History -- 19th century
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Birth control -- France -- Paris -- History -- 19th century
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Birth control
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Maternal and infant welfare
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Poor women
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Unmarried mothers
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Welfare recipients
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France -- Paris
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| Genre/Form |
History
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
0813517796 |
|
9780813517797 |
|
081351780X |
|
9780813517803 |
|
9780813557946 |
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0813557941 |
|
