Rodolfo Valdez, Muin J. Khoury, and Paula W. Yoon
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195398441
- eISBN:
- 9780199776023
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398441.003.0029
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
With the advent of molecular genetics, the accelerated mapping of human genes to specific chromosome locations was made possible without the use of detailed pedigrees. Moreover, following the ...
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With the advent of molecular genetics, the accelerated mapping of human genes to specific chromosome locations was made possible without the use of detailed pedigrees. Moreover, following the sequencing of the human genome, new techniques now allow for the scanning of entire genomes in search of genes or gene markers associated with a given trait, regardless of the pattern of inheritance. Among these major advances, however, it is not likely that an instrument as useful as family history will be rendered obsolete as a genomic tool. This chapter argues not only that the use of family history will continue to be valid in clinical settings, but also that family history is poised to become a tool of widespread use in public health settings. Since the emphasis will be on the latter argument, the clinical aspects of family history are briefly addressed.Less
With the advent of molecular genetics, the accelerated mapping of human genes to specific chromosome locations was made possible without the use of detailed pedigrees. Moreover, following the sequencing of the human genome, new techniques now allow for the scanning of entire genomes in search of genes or gene markers associated with a given trait, regardless of the pattern of inheritance. Among these major advances, however, it is not likely that an instrument as useful as family history will be rendered obsolete as a genomic tool. This chapter argues not only that the use of family history will continue to be valid in clinical settings, but also that family history is poised to become a tool of widespread use in public health settings. Since the emphasis will be on the latter argument, the clinical aspects of family history are briefly addressed.
Antoinette Burton
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195144253
- eISBN:
- 9780199871919
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195144253.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter begins by discussing Janaki Agnes Penelope Majumdar's family history. It then explains that family history is a commemorative practice that creates a very specific kind of archive. It ...
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This chapter begins by discussing Janaki Agnes Penelope Majumdar's family history. It then explains that family history is a commemorative practice that creates a very specific kind of archive. It describes Majumdar's “Family History” in the context of colonial Bengal as one that acts as a counternarrative to the family romance that underpinned elite discourses of nationalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines what this work of reconstruction meant in the context of 1930s Indian nation-building in the hands of a prominent nationalist's daughter who was bold enough to chronicle her family's history, and in the process, to reveal her own persistent desire for the elusive fiction of home. It aims to answer recent calls for attention to the role of remembering and forgetting in the “circuits of nationalist thinking” by regrounding the history of Indian Congress nationalism in the social life of “things” like house and home.Less
This chapter begins by discussing Janaki Agnes Penelope Majumdar's family history. It then explains that family history is a commemorative practice that creates a very specific kind of archive. It describes Majumdar's “Family History” in the context of colonial Bengal as one that acts as a counternarrative to the family romance that underpinned elite discourses of nationalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines what this work of reconstruction meant in the context of 1930s Indian nation-building in the hands of a prominent nationalist's daughter who was bold enough to chronicle her family's history, and in the process, to reveal her own persistent desire for the elusive fiction of home. It aims to answer recent calls for attention to the role of remembering and forgetting in the “circuits of nationalist thinking” by regrounding the history of Indian Congress nationalism in the social life of “things” like house and home.
Claudia Siebrecht
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197266663
- eISBN:
- 9780191905384
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266663.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter focuses on tearful reactions to the outbreak of war in 1939 as described and recalled by German women in diaries, memoirs, and oral histories. Women who were at different life stages in ...
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This chapter focuses on tearful reactions to the outbreak of war in 1939 as described and recalled by German women in diaries, memoirs, and oral histories. Women who were at different life stages in 1939 offer nuanced and explicit testimonies of their emotional responses, which were predominantly framed with references to the First World War. Retained memories of bereavement and hardship are particularly striking, and this chapter argues that both personal and familial experiences of the period between 1914 and 1918 were of key importance as they accumulated into an emotional archive. This emotional archive represented a crucial reference point for women to gauge a contemporaneous response to a political event—the outbreak of war in 1939. It also facilitated the construction of a personal stance and political positioning to war in a retrospective post-Second World War context. Women’s tears of 1939 were therefore about more than the outbreak of war; they were about owning and disowning different parts of their past.Less
This chapter focuses on tearful reactions to the outbreak of war in 1939 as described and recalled by German women in diaries, memoirs, and oral histories. Women who were at different life stages in 1939 offer nuanced and explicit testimonies of their emotional responses, which were predominantly framed with references to the First World War. Retained memories of bereavement and hardship are particularly striking, and this chapter argues that both personal and familial experiences of the period between 1914 and 1918 were of key importance as they accumulated into an emotional archive. This emotional archive represented a crucial reference point for women to gauge a contemporaneous response to a political event—the outbreak of war in 1939. It also facilitated the construction of a personal stance and political positioning to war in a retrospective post-Second World War context. Women’s tears of 1939 were therefore about more than the outbreak of war; they were about owning and disowning different parts of their past.
Andrew Lawson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199828050
- eISBN:
- 9780199933334
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199828050.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
“Downwardly Mobile” explores the links between a growing sense of economic precariousness within the American middle class and the development of literary realism over the course of the nineteenth ...
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“Downwardly Mobile” explores the links between a growing sense of economic precariousness within the American middle class and the development of literary realism over the course of the nineteenth century by Rose Terry Cooke, Rebecca Harding Davis, William Dean Howells, Henry James, and Hamlin Garland. The book argues that, in each of these writers, the opacity and abstraction of social relationships in an expanding market economy combined with a sense of pervasive insecurity to produce a “hunger for the real” – a commitment to a mimetic literature capable of stabilizing the social world by capturing it with a new sharpness and accuracy. The book relocates the origins of literary realism in the antebellum period and a structure of feeling based in the residual household economy which prized the virtues of the local, the particular, and the concrete, against the alienating abstractions of the emerging market. In a parallel line of argument, the book explores the ways in which sympathetic identification with lower-class figures served to locate American realist authors in a confused and shifting social space. downward mobilityLess
“Downwardly Mobile” explores the links between a growing sense of economic precariousness within the American middle class and the development of literary realism over the course of the nineteenth century by Rose Terry Cooke, Rebecca Harding Davis, William Dean Howells, Henry James, and Hamlin Garland. The book argues that, in each of these writers, the opacity and abstraction of social relationships in an expanding market economy combined with a sense of pervasive insecurity to produce a “hunger for the real” – a commitment to a mimetic literature capable of stabilizing the social world by capturing it with a new sharpness and accuracy. The book relocates the origins of literary realism in the antebellum period and a structure of feeling based in the residual household economy which prized the virtues of the local, the particular, and the concrete, against the alienating abstractions of the emerging market. In a parallel line of argument, the book explores the ways in which sympathetic identification with lower-class figures served to locate American realist authors in a confused and shifting social space. downward mobility
Ezra Susser, Sharon Schwartz, Alfredo Morabia, and Evelyn J. Bromet
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195101812
- eISBN:
- 9780199864096
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195101812.003.30
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
Family history studies are now used for a much wider range of purposes than in the past. This chapter discusses their usefulness for refining phenotype definitions, targeting preventive ...
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Family history studies are now used for a much wider range of purposes than in the past. This chapter discusses their usefulness for refining phenotype definitions, targeting preventive interventions, characterizing genetic effects, and exploring gene-environment interaction. These are in addition to their original role in genetic research, which was to examine whether diseases aggregate in families. The chapter also elaborates on their relationship to the risk factor designs described in previous chapters.Less
Family history studies are now used for a much wider range of purposes than in the past. This chapter discusses their usefulness for refining phenotype definitions, targeting preventive interventions, characterizing genetic effects, and exploring gene-environment interaction. These are in addition to their original role in genetic research, which was to examine whether diseases aggregate in families. The chapter also elaborates on their relationship to the risk factor designs described in previous chapters.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter explores some of the prehistory of reception of the Chernobyl disaster in various aspects of Soviet-era life from the perspective of individuals and families living outside ...
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This chapter explores some of the prehistory of reception of the Chernobyl disaster in various aspects of Soviet-era life from the perspective of individuals and families living outside state-designated zones. The discussion focuses on events in a time when bureaucratic lines between sufferers and nonsufferers were just beginning to be drawn, and when other informal structures of accountability regarding state-related abuses were in place. From the perspective of one family, the chapter shows how individuals reached the limits of their ability to reason, narrate, and project futures in the context of an invisible nuclear hazard. It explains how life narratives and family histories reflected a vexed and complex history of Ukraine, but also how these histories informed interpretations of the Chernobyl experience.Less
This chapter explores some of the prehistory of reception of the Chernobyl disaster in various aspects of Soviet-era life from the perspective of individuals and families living outside state-designated zones. The discussion focuses on events in a time when bureaucratic lines between sufferers and nonsufferers were just beginning to be drawn, and when other informal structures of accountability regarding state-related abuses were in place. From the perspective of one family, the chapter shows how individuals reached the limits of their ability to reason, narrate, and project futures in the context of an invisible nuclear hazard. It explains how life narratives and family histories reflected a vexed and complex history of Ukraine, but also how these histories informed interpretations of the Chernobyl experience.
Pat Thane and Tanya Evans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199578504
- eISBN:
- 9780191741838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578504.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The first thorough account of the work of the Finer Committee on One-Parent Families, set up by the Labour Government in 1969, reported in 1974. The most detailed study, then or since, of the past ...
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The first thorough account of the work of the Finer Committee on One-Parent Families, set up by the Labour Government in 1969, reported in 1974. The most detailed study, then or since, of the past and present of single parenthood in Britain, its causes and outcomes. Examines the membership, the evidence, conclusions, and recommendations: the difficulties of mothers in being self-supporting, given gender inequalities in pay and work opportunities and inadequate childcare; of fathers, especially when low-paid and with two families; the inadequacies of the legal system and the benefit system; lack of suitable housing and continuing forbidding conditions in Homes. They recommended a new state benefit for lone-parent families, which the Labour Government rejected, though child support was improved. It led to lasting improvement in the legal system. From 1977 improved access to council housing for lone mothers.Less
The first thorough account of the work of the Finer Committee on One-Parent Families, set up by the Labour Government in 1969, reported in 1974. The most detailed study, then or since, of the past and present of single parenthood in Britain, its causes and outcomes. Examines the membership, the evidence, conclusions, and recommendations: the difficulties of mothers in being self-supporting, given gender inequalities in pay and work opportunities and inadequate childcare; of fathers, especially when low-paid and with two families; the inadequacies of the legal system and the benefit system; lack of suitable housing and continuing forbidding conditions in Homes. They recommended a new state benefit for lone-parent families, which the Labour Government rejected, though child support was improved. It led to lasting improvement in the legal system. From 1977 improved access to council housing for lone mothers.
Pat Thane and Tanya Evans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199578504
- eISBN:
- 9780191741838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578504.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
After the war still high levels of unmarried motherhood and cohabitation and many mothers still lived with their parents in an atmosphere of tolerance but secrecy. Harder for mothers on their own to ...
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After the war still high levels of unmarried motherhood and cohabitation and many mothers still lived with their parents in an atmosphere of tolerance but secrecy. Harder for mothers on their own to find homes and childcare, leading to increased adoption, often reluctant. More, earlier, and longer lasting marriages, but moral panics about ‘teenage mothers’ and increased adultery, the first exaggerated, the latter numbers unknown. Increased influence of psychology, especially John Bowlby, stressing the two-parent family and stay-at-home mother as the bedrock of social stability. Bowlby's conclusions, especially on unmarried mothers, were challenged by social research. Life stories call in question the contented stability of much family life at this time, despite contemporary rhetoric and subsequent idealization of family life during the period.Less
After the war still high levels of unmarried motherhood and cohabitation and many mothers still lived with their parents in an atmosphere of tolerance but secrecy. Harder for mothers on their own to find homes and childcare, leading to increased adoption, often reluctant. More, earlier, and longer lasting marriages, but moral panics about ‘teenage mothers’ and increased adultery, the first exaggerated, the latter numbers unknown. Increased influence of psychology, especially John Bowlby, stressing the two-parent family and stay-at-home mother as the bedrock of social stability. Bowlby's conclusions, especially on unmarried mothers, were challenged by social research. Life stories call in question the contented stability of much family life at this time, despite contemporary rhetoric and subsequent idealization of family life during the period.
Pat Thane and Tanya Evans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199578504
- eISBN:
- 9780191741838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578504.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Questions how much changed and why. Most changes were from the later 1960s: liberal legislation (e.g., divorce reform, legal abortion), the pill, increased divorce, open cohabitation, births outside ...
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Questions how much changed and why. Most changes were from the later 1960s: liberal legislation (e.g., divorce reform, legal abortion), the pill, increased divorce, open cohabitation, births outside marriage, fewer marriages. End of family secrecy and more public tolerance, but intolerance remained in some circles, reacting against ‘permissiveness’. Emphasis in public and policy discourse on lone mothers, rather than unmarried mothers because there was increased divorce and separation. The ‘rediscovery of poverty’ and new campaigns about family poverty. Unmarried mothers still poorest and NC continued to prioritize them, though it changed its name in 1973 to the National Council for One Parent Families (OPF) in response to needs of other single parents. The limits to change: the experiences of lone mothers and attitudes to them still diverse.Less
Questions how much changed and why. Most changes were from the later 1960s: liberal legislation (e.g., divorce reform, legal abortion), the pill, increased divorce, open cohabitation, births outside marriage, fewer marriages. End of family secrecy and more public tolerance, but intolerance remained in some circles, reacting against ‘permissiveness’. Emphasis in public and policy discourse on lone mothers, rather than unmarried mothers because there was increased divorce and separation. The ‘rediscovery of poverty’ and new campaigns about family poverty. Unmarried mothers still poorest and NC continued to prioritize them, though it changed its name in 1973 to the National Council for One Parent Families (OPF) in response to needs of other single parents. The limits to change: the experiences of lone mothers and attitudes to them still diverse.
Pat Thane and Tanya Evans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199578504
- eISBN:
- 9780191741838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578504.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Points out how many ‘illegitimate’ children were born between the 1830s and 1930s, but that we don't know how many stayed with their mothers. It outlines the variety of ways they stayed together: for ...
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Points out how many ‘illegitimate’ children were born between the 1830s and 1930s, but that we don't know how many stayed with their mothers. It outlines the variety of ways they stayed together: for example, a child being brought up by grandparents believing they were its parents and their journey of discovery until the shock of finding out. The surprising extent of secret cohabitation because divorce was difficult, and its social acceptability if the families behaved respectably. Increased illegitimacy during the First World War and the moral panic that resulted. Foundation of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child (NC) to protect mothers and children. Problems of survival of poor mothers and children with support from their families or the fathers, forcing some to have their children adopted.Less
Points out how many ‘illegitimate’ children were born between the 1830s and 1930s, but that we don't know how many stayed with their mothers. It outlines the variety of ways they stayed together: for example, a child being brought up by grandparents believing they were its parents and their journey of discovery until the shock of finding out. The surprising extent of secret cohabitation because divorce was difficult, and its social acceptability if the families behaved respectably. Increased illegitimacy during the First World War and the moral panic that resulted. Foundation of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child (NC) to protect mothers and children. Problems of survival of poor mothers and children with support from their families or the fathers, forcing some to have their children adopted.
Pat Thane and Tanya Evans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199578504
- eISBN:
- 9780191741838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578504.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
How unmarried mothers and their children survived in interwar Britain. This chapter describes how difficult it was for women to obtain maintenance from the father through the courts. It emphasizes ...
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How unmarried mothers and their children survived in interwar Britain. This chapter describes how difficult it was for women to obtain maintenance from the father through the courts. It emphasizes the humiliating process of applying for Poor Law relief, the only public welfare available, which even led to some unmarried mothers being placed in mental hospitals. Charity: the NC did its best to help and made innovative use of media, including radio, television, and film to raise funds for an unpopular cause. Its campaigns to change the law to improve provision. It is unknown how many fathers voluntarily helped, when they could afford it. Many could not in a period of high unemployment, especially if they had other families. Unmarried mothers experienced many difficulties with housing. Difficulty of finding a home of their own: prejudice of landlords. Still many mothers cohabited with the fathers or lived with their parents, accepted by their communities. Stories of middle-class cohabitation and unmarried motherhood, including well-known writers such as Rebecca West.Less
How unmarried mothers and their children survived in interwar Britain. This chapter describes how difficult it was for women to obtain maintenance from the father through the courts. It emphasizes the humiliating process of applying for Poor Law relief, the only public welfare available, which even led to some unmarried mothers being placed in mental hospitals. Charity: the NC did its best to help and made innovative use of media, including radio, television, and film to raise funds for an unpopular cause. Its campaigns to change the law to improve provision. It is unknown how many fathers voluntarily helped, when they could afford it. Many could not in a period of high unemployment, especially if they had other families. Unmarried mothers experienced many difficulties with housing. Difficulty of finding a home of their own: prejudice of landlords. Still many mothers cohabited with the fathers or lived with their parents, accepted by their communities. Stories of middle-class cohabitation and unmarried motherhood, including well-known writers such as Rebecca West.
Pat Thane and Tanya Evans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199578504
- eISBN:
- 9780191741838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578504.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
‘Illegitimacy’ increased again during the Second World War, causing another moral panic about rampant sexuality among young people. Official statistics showed reality: pre-marital pregnancy was ...
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‘Illegitimacy’ increased again during the Second World War, causing another moral panic about rampant sexuality among young people. Official statistics showed reality: pre-marital pregnancy was common before the war, but absence of fathers at war prevented many marriages, leading to more unmarried motherhood. Different experiences of civilian mothers, war workers, and pregnant servicewomen. Problems of mixed-race babies. Inadequacy of public services when families couldn't or wouldn't help. NC and other voluntary agencies vital and called on by the state to help. New services introduced, leading to permanent improvements in welfare after the war. Individual wartime life stories: a woman civil servant supported by her family and colleagues, other women rejected; Eric Clapton discovers his ‘mother’ is his grandmother, his ‘sister’ his mother. Traumatic for him.Less
‘Illegitimacy’ increased again during the Second World War, causing another moral panic about rampant sexuality among young people. Official statistics showed reality: pre-marital pregnancy was common before the war, but absence of fathers at war prevented many marriages, leading to more unmarried motherhood. Different experiences of civilian mothers, war workers, and pregnant servicewomen. Problems of mixed-race babies. Inadequacy of public services when families couldn't or wouldn't help. NC and other voluntary agencies vital and called on by the state to help. New services introduced, leading to permanent improvements in welfare after the war. Individual wartime life stories: a woman civil servant supported by her family and colleagues, other women rejected; Eric Clapton discovers his ‘mother’ is his grandmother, his ‘sister’ his mother. Traumatic for him.
Kate Bagnall and Julia T. Martínez
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9789888528615
- eISBN:
- 9789888268658
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888528615.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter reviews the state of the field of Chinese Australian women’s history and provides an introduction to the historical presence of women of Chinese heritage in Australia. For too many years ...
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This chapter reviews the state of the field of Chinese Australian women’s history and provides an introduction to the historical presence of women of Chinese heritage in Australia. For too many years Chinese Australian women’s history has been doubly erased in a gendered and racialized historiography. This has been compounded by the perceived absence of the primary sources needed to undertake a recovery project. As feminist historians we now recognize that aided by the digital revolution and a creative use of newspapers, family histories, official statistics, and government records, it is possible to uncover and illuminate Chinese Australians women’s lives in the past. In doing so we question the framing of Chinese women as static or immobile while their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons took part in large-scale migration from Guangdong in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Placing the movements of migrant and Australian-born Chinese women in an international context, we propose a spectrum of mobility along which women’s individual, and changing, situations can be situated. This introduction also surveys existing historical scholarship on Chinese women’s migration and settlement in New Zealand, Canada, and the United States, recognizing that international themes offer inspiration for Australian research.Less
This chapter reviews the state of the field of Chinese Australian women’s history and provides an introduction to the historical presence of women of Chinese heritage in Australia. For too many years Chinese Australian women’s history has been doubly erased in a gendered and racialized historiography. This has been compounded by the perceived absence of the primary sources needed to undertake a recovery project. As feminist historians we now recognize that aided by the digital revolution and a creative use of newspapers, family histories, official statistics, and government records, it is possible to uncover and illuminate Chinese Australians women’s lives in the past. In doing so we question the framing of Chinese women as static or immobile while their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons took part in large-scale migration from Guangdong in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Placing the movements of migrant and Australian-born Chinese women in an international context, we propose a spectrum of mobility along which women’s individual, and changing, situations can be situated. This introduction also surveys existing historical scholarship on Chinese women’s migration and settlement in New Zealand, Canada, and the United States, recognizing that international themes offer inspiration for Australian research.
Amy M. Froide
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199270606
- eISBN:
- 9780191710216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199270606.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This introductory chapter asks and answers the question: why study singlewomen from the past? The aim of this book, it states, is to reintroduce marital status as a category of difference, and look ...
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This introductory chapter asks and answers the question: why study singlewomen from the past? The aim of this book, it states, is to reintroduce marital status as a category of difference, and look at the women from the early modern period about whom the least is known — single or never-married, women. By decentring marriage as the norm in social, economic, and cultural terms, and looking at the topic of marriage in terms of economic, urban, and family history, the book hopes to redefine our current understanding of people's lives in the past. The chapters in the book are outlined.Less
This introductory chapter asks and answers the question: why study singlewomen from the past? The aim of this book, it states, is to reintroduce marital status as a category of difference, and look at the women from the early modern period about whom the least is known — single or never-married, women. By decentring marriage as the norm in social, economic, and cultural terms, and looking at the topic of marriage in terms of economic, urban, and family history, the book hopes to redefine our current understanding of people's lives in the past. The chapters in the book are outlined.
Pat Thane and Tanya Evans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199578504
- eISBN:
- 9780191741838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578504.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Labour won the 1997 election. Attacks on lone mothers ceased. Benefits, assistance into work and training, and availability of childcare gradually improved, as did the employment situation and the ...
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Labour won the 1997 election. Attacks on lone mothers ceased. Benefits, assistance into work and training, and availability of childcare gradually improved, as did the employment situation and the numbers of mothers in work. Yet surveys showed that negative stereotypes of single mothers as teenage, never-married benefit scroungers persisted, despite evidence to the contrary. Labour attempted to reform the CSA with limited success by 2010, when it lost the election to a Conservative–Liberal Coalition. This returned to cutting benefits and emphasizing ‘family breakdown’ as a cause of wider social problems, including crime. This reached a crescendo following urban riots in August 2011. Poverty in lone-parent families remained high, even when the parent was in full-time work. For all the change over the preceding century, too much remains the same.Less
Labour won the 1997 election. Attacks on lone mothers ceased. Benefits, assistance into work and training, and availability of childcare gradually improved, as did the employment situation and the numbers of mothers in work. Yet surveys showed that negative stereotypes of single mothers as teenage, never-married benefit scroungers persisted, despite evidence to the contrary. Labour attempted to reform the CSA with limited success by 2010, when it lost the election to a Conservative–Liberal Coalition. This returned to cutting benefits and emphasizing ‘family breakdown’ as a cause of wider social problems, including crime. This reached a crescendo following urban riots in August 2011. Poverty in lone-parent families remained high, even when the parent was in full-time work. For all the change over the preceding century, too much remains the same.
Pat Thane and Tanya Evans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199578504
- eISBN:
- 9780191741838
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578504.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This is the first attempt to describe the real lives of unmarried mothers, and attitudes to them, in England from the First World War to the present. We focus on England because the legal position, ...
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This is the first attempt to describe the real lives of unmarried mothers, and attitudes to them, in England from the First World War to the present. We focus on England because the legal position, and other circumstances, of unmarried mothers were often very different elsewhere in Britain. It uses women’s own life stories, among many other sources, to challenge stereotypes of the mothers as all desolate women, rejected by society and by their families, until social attitudes were transformed in the ‘permissive’ 1960s. It shows the diversity of their lives, their social backgrounds, and how often they were supported by their families, neighbours, and the fathers of their children before the 1960s, and continuing hostility by some sections of society since then. It challenges stereotypes, too, about the impact of war on sexual behaviour and about the stability of family life before the 1960s. Much of the evidence comes from the records of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child, set up by prominent people in 1918 to help a social group they believed were neglected, and which is still very active today, as Gingerbread, supporting all lone parents who need them. Their work tells us not only about the lives of those mothers and children who had no other support but also another important story about the vibrancy of voluntary action throughout the past century and its continuing vital role, working alongside and in cooperation with the Welfare State to help mothers into work among other things. Their history is an inspiring example of how, throughout the past century, voluntary organizations in the ‘Big Society’ worked with, not against, the ‘Big State’.Less
This is the first attempt to describe the real lives of unmarried mothers, and attitudes to them, in England from the First World War to the present. We focus on England because the legal position, and other circumstances, of unmarried mothers were often very different elsewhere in Britain. It uses women’s own life stories, among many other sources, to challenge stereotypes of the mothers as all desolate women, rejected by society and by their families, until social attitudes were transformed in the ‘permissive’ 1960s. It shows the diversity of their lives, their social backgrounds, and how often they were supported by their families, neighbours, and the fathers of their children before the 1960s, and continuing hostility by some sections of society since then. It challenges stereotypes, too, about the impact of war on sexual behaviour and about the stability of family life before the 1960s. Much of the evidence comes from the records of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child, set up by prominent people in 1918 to help a social group they believed were neglected, and which is still very active today, as Gingerbread, supporting all lone parents who need them. Their work tells us not only about the lives of those mothers and children who had no other support but also another important story about the vibrancy of voluntary action throughout the past century and its continuing vital role, working alongside and in cooperation with the Welfare State to help mothers into work among other things. Their history is an inspiring example of how, throughout the past century, voluntary organizations in the ‘Big Society’ worked with, not against, the ‘Big State’.
Pat Thane and Tanya Evans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199578504
- eISBN:
- 9780191741838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578504.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The Introduction introduces two main themes; first, the experiences of and attitudes to unmarried mothers and their children in twentieth-century England stressing the diversity of those experiences ...
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The Introduction introduces two main themes; first, the experiences of and attitudes to unmarried mothers and their children in twentieth-century England stressing the diversity of those experiences at all times and challenging stereotypes about the mothers and about the history of the family. Secondly, the history of a voluntary organization, established in 1918 as the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child, still active as Gingerbread, stressing it as an example of the continuing importance of voluntary action in the Welfare State and that voluntary and state welfare have always been complementary in their provision for unmarried mothers and children as in many other areas. They have not been antagonistic as much ‘Big Society’ rhetoric suggests.Less
The Introduction introduces two main themes; first, the experiences of and attitudes to unmarried mothers and their children in twentieth-century England stressing the diversity of those experiences at all times and challenging stereotypes about the mothers and about the history of the family. Secondly, the history of a voluntary organization, established in 1918 as the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child, still active as Gingerbread, stressing it as an example of the continuing importance of voluntary action in the Welfare State and that voluntary and state welfare have always been complementary in their provision for unmarried mothers and children as in many other areas. They have not been antagonistic as much ‘Big Society’ rhetoric suggests.
NORALANE M. LINDOR, CARL J. LINDOR, and MARK H. GREENE
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195149616
- eISBN:
- 9780199865062
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149616.003.0028
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
The recent clinical availability of germ-line mutation testing for susceptibility genes related to the hereditary forms of common tumors such as breast, ovary, colorectum, and melanoma has served as ...
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The recent clinical availability of germ-line mutation testing for susceptibility genes related to the hereditary forms of common tumors such as breast, ovary, colorectum, and melanoma has served as a powerful catalyst for diverse research activities. Laboratory research, which has been propelled forward by access to carefully annotated biological samples obtained from cancer-prone families, is now challenged by an increasingly complex regulatory environment related to the ethical use of such specimens. Practitioners are being confronted by a host of new clinical issues, including those related to predictive risk assessment, genetic counseling, and germ-line mutation testing for clinical decision-making; the duty to warn at-risk relatives versus their high-risk patient's right to privacy and confidentiality; and, most importantly, the need for evidence-based, safe, and effective management recommendations for high-risk individuals. This chapter touches briefly upon some of these issues then provides a thumbnail description of selected hereditary cancer syndromes. It considers only some disorders for which a Mendelian mode of inheritance has been established and for which at least one germ-line susceptibility gene has been identified.Less
The recent clinical availability of germ-line mutation testing for susceptibility genes related to the hereditary forms of common tumors such as breast, ovary, colorectum, and melanoma has served as a powerful catalyst for diverse research activities. Laboratory research, which has been propelled forward by access to carefully annotated biological samples obtained from cancer-prone families, is now challenged by an increasingly complex regulatory environment related to the ethical use of such specimens. Practitioners are being confronted by a host of new clinical issues, including those related to predictive risk assessment, genetic counseling, and germ-line mutation testing for clinical decision-making; the duty to warn at-risk relatives versus their high-risk patient's right to privacy and confidentiality; and, most importantly, the need for evidence-based, safe, and effective management recommendations for high-risk individuals. This chapter touches briefly upon some of these issues then provides a thumbnail description of selected hereditary cancer syndromes. It considers only some disorders for which a Mendelian mode of inheritance has been established and for which at least one germ-line susceptibility gene has been identified.
John Beckett
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719029509
- eISBN:
- 9781781700679
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719029509.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter observes that localities can be studied through various disciplines that are related to local history including family history, urban history and landscape history. These are some of the ...
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This chapter observes that localities can be studied through various disciplines that are related to local history including family history, urban history and landscape history. These are some of the major disciplines that have come out from under the umbrella. Specialisms such as folklore, related to plough plays and similar community information, could be included in it. Specialist subjects also spin off from local history such as railway and canal history. Consequently, what was once labeled as local history is now a rather different concept. Since it seems as if almost every subject now has its dedicated followers, with their own societies, newsletters and journals, local history is an amalgam of a great many disciplines and specialities working together to uncover the past. Since it involves both professionals and amateurs, dedicated scholars and enthusiasts, it is something of a motley bunch, but collectively they are all contributing to the greater understanding of past local societies.Less
This chapter observes that localities can be studied through various disciplines that are related to local history including family history, urban history and landscape history. These are some of the major disciplines that have come out from under the umbrella. Specialisms such as folklore, related to plough plays and similar community information, could be included in it. Specialist subjects also spin off from local history such as railway and canal history. Consequently, what was once labeled as local history is now a rather different concept. Since it seems as if almost every subject now has its dedicated followers, with their own societies, newsletters and journals, local history is an amalgam of a great many disciplines and specialities working together to uncover the past. Since it involves both professionals and amateurs, dedicated scholars and enthusiasts, it is something of a motley bunch, but collectively they are all contributing to the greater understanding of past local societies.
Pat Thane and Tanya Evans
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199578504
- eISBN:
- 9780191741838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578504.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Real improvements for poorer unmarried mothers in the Welfare State created by the post-war Labour Government, building on the wartime experience of inadequate public services for mothers and ...
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Real improvements for poorer unmarried mothers in the Welfare State created by the post-war Labour Government, building on the wartime experience of inadequate public services for mothers and children. The new NHS brought safer childbirth. Benefits improved, but housing was hard to find and they were often excluded from council housing. Many voluntary Mother and Baby Homes remained grim and women avoided them where possible, but they gradually improved. The NC worked with state agencies to bring about these improvements and to help mothers negotiate the benefit system and to train for and find work, as most mothers wanted. Many were better educated and more confident than before the war. Most lived on their earnings and/or help from the father or their family. NC also helped mothers of children whose father was an overseas serviceman who had returned home and women who had babies by British servicemen abroad.Less
Real improvements for poorer unmarried mothers in the Welfare State created by the post-war Labour Government, building on the wartime experience of inadequate public services for mothers and children. The new NHS brought safer childbirth. Benefits improved, but housing was hard to find and they were often excluded from council housing. Many voluntary Mother and Baby Homes remained grim and women avoided them where possible, but they gradually improved. The NC worked with state agencies to bring about these improvements and to help mothers negotiate the benefit system and to train for and find work, as most mothers wanted. Many were better educated and more confident than before the war. Most lived on their earnings and/or help from the father or their family. NC also helped mothers of children whose father was an overseas serviceman who had returned home and women who had babies by British servicemen abroad.
