Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
First Advisor
Rebecca R. Callahan
Abstract
When the Irish Government and Catholic Church collaboratively authored the 1937 Constitution, they centered family as the cornerstone of policy, defining it through a conservative Catholic lens. Marriage was deemed essential to motherhood, rendering unmarried mothers unfit and undeserving of support. This narrative led to 190,000 unmarried pregnant women being sent to Catholic-run mother and baby homes, where they were hidden from society. Many abuses occurred, including the forced separation of children from their birth mothers, and their adoption to married families.
In 2021, the Irish Government released The Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, examining these institutions. Using Schneider and Ingram’s Theory of Social Construction (1993) and Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (1999), I analyzed how the report represented unmarried mothers, past and present. While this study focuses on Irish women between 1937–1998, it highlights how policy shapes social narratives that enable inhumane practices. This is especially relevant today, as religious influence on government policies continues to threaten women’s reproductive rights.
Language
en
Number of Pages
106 p.
Recommended Citation
Homsted, Gillian N., "Unfit, Unholy and Undeserving. The Social Construction of Deviance: Unmarried Mothers in Post-Independence Ireland" (2025). Graduate College Dissertations and Theses. 2059.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/2059