- Author: Murray, Karen
- Title: Governing ‘Unwed Mothers’ in Toronto at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
- Language: English
- Journal: The Canadian Historical Review 85, 2: 253-276
- Publication Year: 2004
- Publisher: University of Toronto Press
■ Abstract This paper shows that the emergence of a field of social welfare for unwed mothers in Toronto at the turn of the twentieth century marked a broad shift within liberal governance. For most of the nineteenth century, an out-of-wedlock birth was considered a private dilemma, and there were few public or private resources for women in this situation. As Toronto urbanized and industrialized, this classical liberal approach proved insufficient, and new institutions and practices emerged that were based on liberal welfare sensibilities, as witnessed in the development of religious-run maternity homes and the subsequent expansion of social work with unwed mothers. Although provincial legislation contributed to these developments, for the most part female charity workers took the lead in forming this social field, which was shaped by white, middle-class, patriarchal sensibilities.
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