Unwed mothers in the city. Illegitimate fertility in 19th-century Geneva

Abstract

The rise in illegitimate fertility in the late 18th and early 19th centuries has often been related to increasing economic and social vulnerability in the urban industrializing world. Many studies using macro-level data or analyzing individual characteristics of unwed mothers have found support for the vulnerability hypothesis. In this article, we investigate illegitimate childbearing in early 19th century Geneva in a longitudinal perspective. Relating events (illegitimate births) to the population at risk (single women), our multivariate analysis shows that the segment of the female population assumed to be most vulnerable – immigrants and maids – did not have a higher risk of illegitimacy. However, the substantially increased risk among women who already gave birth to illegitimate children indicates the existence of a small but highly vulnerable group of women.