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

by Solinger,Rickie

• ISBN13: 9780415926768
• ISBN10: 0415926769
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-02-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

"Rickie Solinger's passionate and powerful history serves to remind us of the importance of the feminist efforts that led to Roe v. Wade and the many other measures that have liberated women from the constraints of the past." -From the new foreword by Elaine Tyler May Twenty-five years after the Supreme Court's landmark decision, abortion rights are as fiercely contested as ever and current debates over welfare, workfare, and public assistance to women with children demonstrate the way in which race and class continue to effect women's reproductive freedom. A pioneering work,Wake Up Little Susiereveals how current attitudes toward these issues developed by examining their roots in the postwar era and discerning how differently they affected black and white women. A powerful and shocking book,Susieis a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the complex and disturbing politics surrounding issues of race, class and reproductive rights. This new edition includes a foreword by theesteemed social historian, Elaine Tyler May, and an afterword by the author that places the issues examined inSusiein the context of the current controversies.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction: Female and Fertile in the Fifties	p. 1
The Stick and the Carrot: Public Meanings of Black and White Single Pregnancy in the Pre-Roe v. Wade Era	p. 20
The Making of the "Matriarchy": The Persistence of Biological Explanations for Black Single Pregnancy	p. 41
The Girl Nobody Loved: Psychological Explanations for White Single Pregnancy	p. 86
Behind the Fence: Maternity Homes, 1945-65	p. 103
The Disposition of Illegitimate Babies I: The Postwar Adoption Mandate	p. 148
The Disposition of Illegitimate Babies II: A Taxpayer's Issue	p. 187
The Population Bomb and the Sexual Revolution: Toward Choice	p. 205
Afterword: The Legacy of Racialized Single Motherhood--1950s and Beyond	p. 233
Notes	p. 249
Bibliographic Essay	p. 304
Bibliography	p. 310
Index	p. 333
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