The girls who went away : the hidden history of women who surrendered children for adoption in the decades before Roe v. Wade
(Book)

Book Cover
Published
New York : Penguin Press, 2006.
Format
Book
Status
Port Angeles - Nonfiction (Adult)
362.8298 FESSLER
1 available

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LocationCall NumberStatus
Port Angeles - Nonfiction (Adult)362.8298 FESSLERAvailable

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Published
New York : Penguin Press, 2006.
Physical Desc
354 pages ; 25 cm.
Language
English
UPC
9781594200946

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (p. [331]-342) and index.
Description
This book brings to light the lives of 1.5 million single American women in the years following World War II who, under enormous social and family pressure, were coerced to give up their newborn children. It tells not of wild and carefree sexual liberation, but rather of a devastating double standard that has had punishing long-term effects on these women and on the children they gave up. Single pregnant women were shunned by family and friends, evicted from schools, sent away to maternity homes to have their children alone, and often treated with cold contempt by doctors, nurses, and clergy. The majority of the women interviewed by Fessler, herself an adoptee, have never spoken of their experiences, and most have been haunted by grief and shame their entire adult lives.--From publisher description.