Wake Up Little Susie

Rickie Solinger is also the author of The Abortionist: AWoman Against the Law and editor of Abortion Wars: A HalfCentury of Struggle, 1950-2000. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.

"A stunning but troubling book that illuminates the deeply racialized terrain on which the politics of women's reproductive capacities and decisions have been played out. Contributing mightily to contemporary social policy debates, this rich history of single pregnancy from 1945 to 1965 warns us that reproductive rights must not only guard each woman's choice to contracept or to terminate a pregnancy, but also must win honor and social support for each woman's choice to become a mother." -- Gwendolyn Mink, author of Welfare's End"It is impossible to read Wake Up Little Susie without understanding that racism as well as a deeply felt distrust of women as mothers--magnified when the women are not formally subordinated to husbands--makes such odd national passions possible." -- Bernice L. Hausman, Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering, vol 4.1

• Preface, Introduction: Female and Fertile in the Fifties, Chapter 1. The Stick and the Carrot: Public Meanings of Black and White Single Pregnancy in the Pre-Roe v. Wade Era, Chapter 2. The Making of the Matriarchy'': The Persistence of Biological Explanations for Black Single Pregnancy, Chapter 3. The Girl Nobody Loved: Psychological Explanations for White Single Pregnancy, Chapter 4. Behind the Fence: Maternity Homes, 1945-65, Chapter 5. The Disposition of Illegitimate Babies I: The Postwar Adoption Mandate, Chapter 6. The Disposition of Illegitimate Babies II: A Taxpayers' Issue, Chapter 7. The Population Bomb and the Sexual Revolution: Toward Choice, Notes, Bibliographic Essay, Bibliography, Index