Cultural treatment of promiscuous women and illegitimate children

The headline read, "One out of 12 in America Held to be Illegitimate; Issuance of 'Partial' Birth Certificates Proposed to Avoid Embarrassments" (Staff, 1944, p. 4). The assertion conjures a mental image of hundreds of decadent, low socioeconomic status, immoral women and her filius nullius (Latin term meaning, "son of nobody"). Parents of the single, gravid woman were shamed, mortified or disgusted by the sexual promiscuity of their daughter; how they could face their friends after learning of the daughter's transgression? Is this the first era of social stigma related to a child borne by an unmarried woman? The samplings of historical data below indicate no.

The Bible speaks often to a debauched woman and her bastard offspring. For example, Galatians 5:19-21 (English Standard Version):

19 Now, the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

20 Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,

21 Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Figure Lillian Gish (1926)In 1850, Nathanial Hawthorne wrote the "Scarlet Letter." Set in a Puritan colony, his central character Hester Prynne, gave birth to an illegitimate daughter because of an adulterous affair. Hester was publicly shamed and forced to wear a red letter "A" on her chest, identifying her as an adulterer. She experienced cruelty, humiliation, and ostracism from the people of the community. She eventually realized the fortitude of her spirit. The novel is 160 years old, yet the moral dilemmas of personal responsibility, and consuming emotions of guilt, anger, loyalty and revenge are enduring.

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"Unfair treatment and the stigma really permeate all aspects of society. It's still expected that people will marry and that there's something weird about you if you don't." Thomas Coleman

In the year 1944, when the above article appeared in The Pittsburgh Press, the institution of marriage before parenthood was the virtuous and accepted way of life. Women were expected to "love and obey" their husbands.

bas·tard (bas′tÉ™rd) noun

a person born of parents not married to each other; illegitimate child

anything spurious, inferior, or varying from standard

Slang a person regarded with contempt, hatred, pity, resentment, etc. or, sometimes, with playful affection: a vulgar usage

Etymology: ME < OFr < bast- (also in fils de bast) (< ? Goth bansts, barn) + -ard, -ard: hence, one conceived in a barn (Webster's, 2010).

Vocabulary to describe the child borne of an unmarried woman varies throughout literature. Bastard is the most prolific term used in the earliest writings. A bastard is a person born out of wedlock whose father is not listed on the birth certificate and legal status is illegitimacy. Bastards had no right to inherit property from his or her parents except through a will. In the mid-20th century, discrimination against children born out of wedlock became subject to constitutional limitation under the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment (Columbia, 2009, p. 1).

Illegitimate, love child, whoreson, spurious; terminology referring to the child borne of an unmarried mother may be perceived as vilifying the child. The mother, who's referenced by the terms unwed, unmarried, or single, was a pariah. Often, the pregnant single woman was scuttled off to a residential home for unwed mothers.

The occurrence of out-of-wedlock births has been rising over the past 70 years. In the 1940s, fewer than five percent of the total births were out of wedlock (Ventura, 2009). In the 1940s and 1950s, unwed mothers were strongly encouraged to give their children up for adoption. Commonly, an illegitimate child raised by grandparents or married relatives believed the unwed mother was his sister or he was her nephew.

Between 1940 and 1960, the escalation of out-of-wedlock births was subtle. Since the 1970s, increases in the number, rate, and ratio of out-of-wedlock births have been dramatic. In addition, the size of the unmarried population has increased as a result of the high birth rates during late 1940s through the early 1960s, along with the unprecedented deferment of marriage by the baby-boomers (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [DHHS], 1995, p. 4).

Little in the literature discusses the biosocial and psychosocial influences upon the child or the mother. However, researchers have gathered a multitude of statistics demonstrating the delayed cognitive development of the child of a single parent. Unwed teenage mothers and their children are more likely living in lower socioeconomic conditions. The mothers face multiple risks of dropping out of school and becoming part of the economic underclass (Drummond & Hansford, 1992, p. 529). The unwed mothers were perceived by society as "deadbeats ripping off the American taxpayer." Additionally, the societal concern of Americans over teenage mothers was that "babies are having babies"; that 16 year old girls were too young and unprepared for the responsibilities of single parenthood (Whitehead, 2007, p. 6).

The negativity surrounding unmarried mothers and their children was rampant during the years prior to 1970. That is not to say the mind-set completely disappeared at the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1969.

The public opinion of unmarried mothers remains. How that opinion is manifested has undergone changes. The transformation of the single-parent family from uncommonness to an established family style was one of the most dramatic social changes of the 20th century. Only 1 in 10 children lived in a single-parent family prior to 1960. More than 1in 4 did so by the century's end. Although the consequences of single parent family formation have received abundant scrutiny, less is known about the evolution of attitudes toward these families (Usdansky, 2009, p. 209).

Is the increase of non-martial births due to eroding morals? Or, is there more ambivalence and apathy towards the single parent lifestyle? The cognitive development of morals and culture in emerging adult (ages 18-25) continues through middle age (Berger, 2008, p. 483). During this phase of human development, the emerging adult thinking is more practical, more flexible, and more dialectical (Berger, 2008, p. 472). The cultural background likely affects the cognitive process (Berger, 2008, p. 481).

Cultural influences have an effect on religious belief development. The religious and spiritual growth of a genome progresses with stages of human development. Take the quotation below, for example.

"'Marriage exerts less influence over how adults organize their lives and how children are born and raised than at any time in the nation's history,' the survey says. Between 1960 and 2005, the rate of unwed childbearing increased sevenfold, from 5.3 percent of all births to 36.8 percent. The survey finds that the average unwed mother 'is more likely to be white than black, and more likely to be an adult than a teenager. …' The survey attributes this 'sharp increase in non-marital births' to 'an ever greater percentage of women in the 20s, 30s, and older … delaying or forgoing marriage but having children.' But more Americans than ever naively think they alone can make single-parenting work."

"Day-to-day realities slowly undermine this optimism. Single parents who have been at it awhile know better than anyone how less than ideal their situation is. That's one reason we can expect to see more and more single parents looking for outside support. Single mothers …often long for a strong, caring male to enter their children's lives. So it nearly goes without saying: The church has a unique opportunity at this cultural moment."

"For years, we have been preaching the supremacy of the two-parent family, offering classes and seminars for young couples and families…"

"A dramatic example, but boys without father figures and girls without mother figures have a strike against them. The latest national study shows that more children than ever are entering the world with such strikes. It's an unprecedented cultural moment for Christians, to see if we can act less like individual consumers of spirituality and more like the family of God" ("The fatherless child", 2007, p. 5).

On August 22, 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Public Law 104-193, better known as the Welfare Reform Bill. This law changes how governmental financial assistance is administered.

On September 15, 2000, the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala awarded five states $100 million ($20 million each) in for reducing the number of out-of-wedlock births. "Among the priorities of the 1996 welfare reform law were promoting parental responsibility and encouraging two-parent families," said Secretary Shalala. "I'm very pleased to award these bonuses as an incentive to advance these important family goals" (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2000).

Is the child borne of an unwed mother destined to poverty, illiteracy, and a life of crime? Is the single mother doomed to never-ending disgrace and the topic for scandalous gossip? In the next chapter, evidence throughout the years reveals the picture is not all black.

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new." Rajneesh

The year 1992 marked a pioneering event on network television. The highly-rated CBS show "Murphy Brown" started the new season with Murphy Brown, a divorced news anchorwoman, become pregnant and choosing to have the baby and raise it alone. America's pro-lifers jeered, while the pro-choices cheered. Even the presidential candidates had something to say. Vice President Dan Quayle declared that the Los Angeles riots were caused in part by a "poverty of values." He went on to denounce the acceptance of unwed motherhood. "It doesn't help matters," Quayle complained, when Murphy Brown, "a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid professional woman" is portrayed as "mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another 'life-style choice' " ("Murphy Brown", 1992).

In 2006, Rosanna Hertz published her non-fiction book, Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice. She noted the Single By Choice (SBC) woman belongs to a distinct subgroup of single parents, who, out of a strong desire for a child, have made the active choice to go it alone. Moreover, she asserts the SBC route to parenthood does not necessarily seem to have an adverse effect on mothers' parenting ability or the psychological adjustment of the child (Murray & Golombok, 2005, p. 1655).

From the early 1960s to the late 1980s, the percentage of women having a non-marital child increased by 50% among whites and by 24% among blacks (Currie, 2009, p. 37).

One research study hypothesized a preventive group intervention with SBC mothers can identify potential psychological risk factors and help mothers with sensitive aspects of parenting (Ben-Daniel, Rokach, Filtzer, & Feldman, 2007, p. 249). There is research indicating that women in the typical age group of SBC mothers (35 to 44) tend to experience more stress than younger mothers. Their lifestyle is well established; pregnancy and parenting are perceived by some as interfering with their chosen way of life, especially in her career. SBC women are often the oldest daughter in their family (Ben-Daniel et al., 2007, p. 263).

In the few studies that exist on children of single mothers, no significant difference has been found in the child's emotional and social development. Likewise, the development of gender identity of children of single mothers, as compared with children raised in heterosexual families, was unaffected.

The results of the study revealed therapeutic gain: Reduction of stress, tension and guilt; helped mothers prepared for parenting by encouraging a positive self-image and perceptions of the child. Improving the SBC mother's acceptance of her chosen family model therefore promoted her willingness to tell children their birth story (Ben-Daniel et al., 2007, p. 264).

The child must be aware that it is okay to come from a family background different from a friend's or neighbors. Some children live with two parents, others with only their mother or a father. Recently, grandparents have become the newest faction of caregivers for their grandchildren. Other relatives, step-parents, friends, or guardians are examples for the child to ponder. As one SBC mother revealed to her son, Walt Disney's famous mother and son elephant family never made reference to a father; and the mother and son seemed perfectly content.

"The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him." Pablo Casals

The non-marital child and his mother faced prejudice, humiliation, taunts and sneers over the centuries. The hurtful monikers of bastard or illegitimate child are slowly giving way to kinder terms. The prevalence of single by choice, mother by choice women is increasing at the end of the first decade in the 21st century. The commonality of alternative family models and the quiet acceptance of them allay the self-consciousness of the mother and child. No longer does the solo parent with her child have to endure the social stigma of a virtual scarlet letter. When two are a family, the biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial development of the non-marital child is determined by nature and nurture, the environment of unconditional love and acceptance by his society, and the eternal affection of his mother.