Feminine Women, Hard Workers
Foster Motherhood in Midcentury America (1946-1963)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6079508 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura Curran (0000-0001-8877-397X, Rutgers University’s School of Social Work, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 386-412 |
| Publication date | 2006-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Family History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0363-1990 • E-ISSN: 1552-5473 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0363199006290203 |
| OpenAlex | W1967267554 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Through an analysis of case records from two Philadelphia-based child welfare agencies, this article explores professional definitions of foster mothering as well as the experiences and beliefs of women who engaged in child fostering in mid-century America. It argues that social work experts, agency staff, and foster mothers themselves vacillated between an understanding of foster motherhood as an expression of femininity and as a form of valued labor. Influenced by growth of the psychological sciences, these competing discourses reflected larger tensions around changing postwar gender norms and beliefs about motherhood while simultaneously providing a space to contain them
Femininity · Foster care · Foster parents · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Welfare · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,15 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2023 (11) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |