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
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  94 reviews
Sales Rank: 58812
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 1594200947
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.8298
EAN: 9781594200946
ASIN: 1594200947
Publication Date: May 4, 2006
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Product Description
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 history of single women in the fifties, sixties, and early seventies.
In 2002, Fessler, an adoptee herself, traveled the country interviewing women willing to speak publicly about why they relinquished their children. Researching archival records and the political and social climate of the time, she uncovered a story of three decades of women who, under enormous social and family pressure, were coerced or outright forced to give their babies up for adoption. Fessler deftly describes the impossible position in which these women found themselves: as a sexual revolution heated up in the postwar years, birth control was tightly restricted, and abortion proved prohibitively expensive or life endangering. At the same time, a postwar economic boom brought millions of American families into the middle class, exerting its own pressures to conform to a model of family perfection. Caught in the middle, single pregnant women were shunned by family and friends, evicted from schools, sent away to maternity homes to have their children alone, and often treated with cold contempt by doctors, nurses, and clergy.
The majority of the women Fessler interviewed have never spoken of their experiences, and most have been haunted by grief and shame their entire adult lives. A searing and important look into a long-overlooked social history, The Girls Who Went Away is their story.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 89 more reviews...
 Birthmom's do matter. July 13, 2008
Being a birthmom myself, and being reunited with my daughter for a little over a year, has been such a new experience for us all. I am so grateful she is alive and well, though we have a long ways to go for healing. I am fine with this, as I understand her view point, as she is healing too.
I read this book in one sitting, was so drawn to this, and was amazed by the other bmom's experiences, it is a must read for anyone involved in the adoption triad.
We bmom's feel the pain, and as birthmoms' should have a voice, not to bury the lost of their own child, voluntarily or not. Quite a few people still in today's world accept the amother and the achild, but the bmom, still shunned by today. I know this, because I am still being judged. Even though I am telling quite a few of my daughter. Just now I don't care what other people think, where before I was so ashamed on so many levels, and was never allowed to grieve.
This book helped heal my heart with the compelling stories that birthmoms' do have a voice, and the pain of relinquishment voluntarily or not, and living with the loss. Thank you for publishing this book and for these brave Bmom's for sharing their stories
A must read for adoptees May 24, 2008
I am a 36 year old adoptee who was reunited with my birth mother in my early twenties. Although we enjoy a wonderful, close relationship, the topic of my birth is still exquisitely painful for her to discuss. Reading this book gave me a better appreciation for how hard the decision to relinquish me must have been. I would like to thank Ann Fessler for her work.
 Overstated and inaccurate May 14, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
An interesting but limited account of mother's from a small geographic region. Assusmes a revisionist/deconstructionalist version of history. The tales range from sad to tragic, but never takes on the issue of individuals personal responsibility and accountability for actions and hence the whine, woe, victim status. Complete with the common anti-male slant. As an adoptee from 1967 reunited with my mother, we both agree, this is the trite Hollywood version trumped for a Lifetime Channel audience that paints these mothers as helpless controlled victims forced to be dimwitted- not on this side of the Mississippi. My birth mother made a tough choice for her own interests, own's up to that choice and like actual women from the era would have kicked the teeth in of anyone who challenged that decision.
A must read for woman of all ages April 27, 2008
I bought this book for a friend who had been sent away. I could not quit reading the stories. Thanks to this author for brining out these stories. They have a healing element for the women who went away and for their families. If you think your mother didn't want you, read this book.
Understanding More March 24, 2008
While reading this book I laughed, I cried, and I couldn't put it down. Some of the feelings the women in this book express are universal and can be understood by anyone. The women are moving and eloquent when telling the stories about the events that shattered their lives and molded who they are today. I often find myself placing little value on the freedoms my generation enjoys. This book is a reminder to be thankful for all the choices and liberties I enjoy. Though our society still paints a less flattering picture of women than men in relation to sexuality, we in no way suffer the way these women did. It's a testiment to the strength of the human soul as well as the instant bond between mother and child. Overall this book is well written and very enjoyable.
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