Stigma and resistance: The social experience of choosing sole motherhood in Canada 1965–2010

Abstract

Synopsis This article draws on interviews with 29 Canadian women who decided between 1965 and 2010 to parent as sole mothers through adoption or childbirth. The authors examine participants' experience of stigma and social sanctions and explore how perceptions of stigma changed over time. Although the analysis largely reflects the experience of relatively well-educated women, most of whom were white and heterosexual, differences in experience did align with participants' age, race, sexual orientation, poverty or reliance on social assistance and also varied according to religion and local, professional or occupational culture. Different sources or kinds of perceived stigma included stigma based on sexual deviance, irresponsible choices and welfare dependency, a lack of parenting capacity and social exclusion due to father absence. Different forms of resistance to stigmatization are also examined including isolation, secrecy, passing, attempts to minimize assumed disadvantages and more direct and explicit contestation of assumptions about familial norms.