The Girls who Went Away

The Hidden History of Women who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe V. Wade

Author: Ann Fessler
ISBN: 9781594200946

A powerful and groundbreaking revelation of the secret history of the 1.5 million women who surrendered children for adoption in the several decades before Roe v. Wade In this deeply moving work, Ann Fessler brings to light the lives of hundreds of thousands of young single American women forced to give up their newborn children in the years following World War II and before Roe v. Wade. The Girls Who Went Away tells a story not of wild and carefree sexual liberation, but rather of a devastating double standard that has had punishing long-term effects on these women and on the children they gave up for adoption. Based on Fessler's groundbreaking interviews, it brings to brilliant life these women's voices and the spirit of the time, allowing each to share her own experience in gripping and intimate detail. Today, when the future of the Roe decision and women's reproductive rights stand squarely at the front of a divisive national debate, Fessler brings to the fore a long-overlooked hi

Publisher: Penguin Press
Publish Date: 2006

Subjects: Family & Relationships / Adoption & Fostering, Social Science / Women's Studies

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Reproductive Issues)