Single mother is still a scapegoat

DURING the 1830s a number of learned men presented evidence to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws concerning the ‘growing evil’ of bastardy.

They were in agreement that public assistance encouraged women to get pregnant so that they could secure a ‘sort of pension’ to themselves.

And this was the justification for excluding unmarried mothers from public assistance outside of the abysmal conditions of the workhouse.