The Threat Of Lone Motherhood: The State, Society And The Lone Mother In The 1980s.

This research will examine the complex relationship between the state and lone motherhood in the 1980s. It will focus on legislation, policy makers` thoughts and broader social attitudes to examine the stigma and hostility directed at lone mothers during Margaret Thatcher`s Conservative government. The research for this work has been collected from a wide range of sources. Oral history interviews, opinion polls, policy documents, party manifestos, press reports and records from notable organisations such as the National Council for One Parent Families have all informed this research. This dissertation will argue that the decade of Conservative leadership did little to improve the lives of lone mothers. By contrast, this era facilitated an increased level of stigmatisation and discrimination, as lone motherhood was perceived to be a threat to British morality.

Introduction To begin, this introductory chapter will offer a brief definition of how the term `lone motherhood` will be used. This will be followed by a discussion of the historiography of lone motherhood and where this dissertation fits within it. Additionally, an assessment of how the research methods of oral history and archival sources contributed to this dissertation will be conducted. In order to highlight the significance of issues addressed in later chapters, this introductory section will discuss the context of the 1970s and summarise the statistics regarding lone motherhood in the 1980s.

Definition of `lone mother` In this dissertation, the term `lone mother` will be used to refer to women who have the sole guardianship of raising a child without support from a partner. Contrary to dominant social perceptions in the 1980s, it is important to note that lone mothers are not a homogenous group; the notion of the lone mother includes those who, through divorce, separation, unplanned pregnancies, widowhood or indeed personal choice, raised a child unaided. Although it is perfectly viable that many lone mothers were financially stable with adequate childcare and housing, this research will be explicitly concerned with mothers who had a low income and were therefore somewhat dependent on government support. It is this portion of mothers whose lives were intrinsically linked to the decade of Conservative changes.

Historiography

The position of lone mothers in twentieth century Britain has been discussed by historians from a variety of angles; however, there is not an in-depth analysis explicitly dealing with the 1980s. This decade is particularly interesting as it was a period that allowed one party to dominate the political arena for over 10 years; the length of time that the Conservative party had in office exposed the particular issues that were considered to be priorities and those deemed unimportant. Additionally, research conducted concerning the 1980s often focuses on how radical changes to the economy and the welfare state affected Britain as a whole; the discussion is somewhat limited regarding how specific groups such as lone mothers dealt with high unemployment rates and the economic downturn. This dissertation intends to examine how far difficulties associated with lone motherhood were addressed and to what extent the lives of lone mothers were affected as a consequence of a decade of Conservative leadership.

The historiography of lone motherhood as a whole has developed markedly in recent years. Elizabeth Bortolaia Silva has assessed lone motherhood in Britain and Europe since 1970 through a transnational perspective, comparing the situation of mothers in Europe with those internationally in her work Good Enough Mothering?:Feminist Perspectives on Lone Motherhood. This method has also been adopted by Martina Klett-Davies, in her work Going it Alone?: Lone Motherhood in Late Modernity. Klett-Davies compares the positioning of women in both divided and unified Germany with Great Britain, particularly drawing on issues such as the Welfare State. While a comparison between countries is useful in placing Britain within an international context, this dissertation is exclusively concerned with the politics of Britain; therefore, an invaluable text that aided this research was Pat Thane and Tanya Evans`s work Sinners? Scroungers? Saints? Unmarried Motherhood in Twentieth Century England. Thane and Evans give a comprehensive overview of the position of lone mothers from the First World War to the present day. While their chapter on the 1980s focussed on the struggle of lone mothers, this dissertation intends to develop the notion that single motherhood was seen as a threat to British society. It also seeks to challenge Thane and Evans` argument that "Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister tried to hold fathers responsible, against the established trend of blaming mothers". It will be argued that the Conservative government continued to blame mothers as opposed to the fathers that abandoned them. The unconvincing rhetoric that fathers were responsible was out of a desire to reduce government spending, not to necessarily challenge the trend of holding mothers to account. It came out of an economic standpoint rather than a moralistic one as Thane and Evans suggest.

Research Methods The research conducted to produce this body of work has been a hybrid of both oral history interviews and archival sources. The interviews consisted of both male and female Members of Parliament, journalists and women`s rights activists who were active during the 1980s, some of whom were mothers at the time. Recollections of political history and personal historical accounts have contributed to a variety of perspectives being reflected in this dissertation. Interestingly and rather refreshingly, interviews with members of the House of Commons and House of Lords have been relatively objective. Due to the nature of discussing the divisive politics of Margaret Thatcher, it was expected that there would be a correlation between right wing support and left wing hostility, however; on the whole, the interviews have not been significantly infiltrated by strong feelings of political loyalty or contempt.

The archival sources have varied from feminist publications of the 1980s such as Outwrite and Spare Rib to the records of the National Council for One Parent Families (NCOPF), currently known as Gingerbread. Outwrite is a lesser known women`s newspaper that was published between 1982 and 1988. Its aim was to highlight women`s issues both internationally and nationally. Although the majority of the articles dealt with women`s issues more broadly, matters such as the changes to the benefit system, the difficulties of lone mothers seeking employment and the unsympathetic nature of the British government were frequently addressed. Spare Rib and Outwrite were valuable to my research as they highlighted contentious issues of the 1980s and displayed how the women`s press wrote about the relationship between lone motherhood and the state.

The material sourced from records of the NCOPF consisted of fundraising appeals, minutes of committee meetings and government correspondence. The communication between the NCOPF and individual MPs was insightful as it highlighted the disparity between those who believed supporting lone mothers was a priority and others who felt there were more pressing issues on the government agenda. Additionally, the correspondence between the NCOPF and lone mothers themselves was valuable. Like oral history interviews, this interaction has created a personal narrative which serves as a case study. These accounts were particularly poignant as they placed government policy alongside the context of individual mothers.

The 1980s Conservative and Labour manifestos have also been assessed to create a well-rounded and balanced argument. Although manifesto pledges are not always followed through, they give an indication of what is on each party`s agenda. Despite the fact that it was a period of Conservative leadership, the intentions of the opposition party were also significant as they illustrate whether there was a consensus between the major political parties.