- Headline: "Unwed Mothers Banned from Competition"
- Source: Chosun Ilbo
- Date of Publication: November 28, 1974
- Summary:
Shaken by the selection of 22-year-old British contestant Helen Morgan as Miss World this year, the organizers of the pageant have decided to ban unwed mothers from competing starting next year. Pageant officials, who have long prohibited married women from entering, had attempted to pressure Morgan into retiring from her reign after discovering she had an 18-month-old son. However, Morgan refused, stating that she "had done nothing wrong," and went on to claim the crown. From the end of World War II to the early 1970s, the stigma surrounding unwed pregnancy in Western societies was particularly severe. Most unmarried mothers were pressured to choose adoption, leading scholars to refer to this period as the Baby Scoop Era. However, by the mid-1970s, the stigma surrounding unwed pregnancy and childbirth gradually began to fade, and more unwed mothers started opting for parenting over adoption. The decision by pageant organizers to ban unwed mothers from competing reflects the persistence of social stigma, yet the very presence of unwed mothers in such competitions signals a shift in the experiences and agency of unwed mothers themselves.
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