Medical Malpractice

why did unmarried mothers of 20th century get put in asylums?

Public Comments

1. do you mean the 19th century? Because they had no place in Victorian society so were hidden away in Asylums
2. i think it was because to have children out of wedlock was really frowned upon and families had to "get rid" of these girls who shamed their families. There is a film called something like the magdalene laundry which is about this.
3. They were considered to be morally defective and were incarcerated through much of the 20th century. I met women during the 1980's who were labelled "moral defectives" in their teens and were still incarcerated in their 80's.
4. Given our countries history NOTHING surprises me... Those women must be crazed or possessed to have children without a man. U know, a woman is nothing without a big, strong man! Also a married man, could have his wife deemed crazy and thus admitted into an asylum from his WORD alone..
5. Because back then men were in charge of everything!
6. They did?!?!?!? Where??????
7. While researching my family history I was shocked and enraged to find that one of my Grandfather's sisters spent the years from near the end of WW1 to the early 1950s in an asylum in Yorkshire for the "crime" of bearing a child out of wedlock. From what I can gather she was considered to be "backward" and was in domestic service when she became pregnant. The suspicion is, of course, that she was "taken advantage of" by someone in the household she worked for. The child was put up for adoption and I've not been able to find any trace of it. Eventually,in the 1950s, my relative was released and saw out the remainder of her days in a flat on her own. As to why this happenned to her - my Great Grandfather was a religious obssesive with strict moral values. My Grandfather rebelled and never went back home after serving in the trenches in WW1. His sister did not have that option. Her plight, caused by a combination of religious, family and social bigotry, was seemingly not uncommon.
8. I saw a TV documentary about this big old country estate - whilst refurbishing it they found a secret wall. When they removed it, they found the skeletal remains of a young woman. They said she had been bricked in there alive by her father because she was pregnant! I've never forgotten that partly cos I was a single parent at the time... I guess the family feared shame, ridicule... How absolutely terrible!!!!
9. In the 19th century, because a woman's worth was seen as bound up with her being chaste. She was of no worth to anyone reputable if people thought she wasn't pure. As well, they did not want her to 'corrupt' other good girls so she had to be put away somewhere. Asylums were convenient - where else would they go? The Magdalen laundries had an idea that hard labour would also serve as penance for their 'sin', although i guess the idea that they would suffer physical hardship also appealed to some of their families - that they were being punished for disgracing the family.
10. Because the Holy Joes had too much power and influence on people's lives.