Since the emergence of unwed mothers as a social problem in the 1960s, the situation, such as the increase of young unwed mothers, became serious due to the rapid development of urbanization, industrialization, and liberalization (women's liberation a...
Since the emergence of unwed mothers as a social problem in the 1960s, the situation, such as the increase of young unwed mothers, became serious due to the rapid development of urbanization, industrialization, and liberalization (women's liberation and free sex in particular) during the 1980s.
The initial social attitudes toward to unwed mothers were focused on the individual treatment of them, because their personal defect and failures were considered to be the major factor to make them an unwed mother. From the mid 1980s, however, the social recognition that the increase of unwed mothers has been the result of complex interactions between economic, cultural, and political conditions is widely accepted. Thus the social approach to unwed mothers has also emphasized the social structural dimensions of unwed mothers. Nevertheless, despite the change of social recognition, there still exist social prejudices or discriminations against unwed mothers.
Based on these negative social attitudes toward unwed mothers as research background, this study aims to explain the continuous process of becoming, experiencing and living an unwed mother. Interview data on unwed mothers will be used to clarify their subjective experiences of maternity and identify the structural factors influencing the process of becoming, experiencing and living unwed mother.
The major findings of data analysis are summarized as follows:
There are two types of becoming an unwed mother: (1) simple relationship without living together with the unwed father, and (2) living together after relationship. The family background of the unwed mother, her relationship with the unwed father, and the use of contraception or abortion were discovered to be the determining factors of becoming an unwed mother. After becoming an unwed mother, she experienced maternity feelings in various ways. She resented against herself, her family, and the unwed father, or wished her baby to be adopted in a good family and grow up as a good person, or worried about her child care. But most of unwed mothers were very positively planning their lives after welfare facilities, dreaming a happy marriage, getting a good job, going back to school, or keeping a nice shape, etc.