ABSTRACT
The motives that could impel a woman to dispose of an unwanted infant can only be appreciated against the setting of women’s economic and social vulnerability. 1 The prevailing assumption about women’s earnings throughout the period covered by this book was that they were only supplemental to the male breadwinners’ earnings and should be justifiably depressed; this presumption held true even if the woman was single and unsupported, or had dependent children as a respectable widow. A woman’s true place was in the home, it was felt, and in the world of work they must never be allowed to compete with men. The quiet desperation of the unsupported woman was described by a sympathetic male observer in 1870:
. . . from the restriction of female labour to the more servile departments of industry, from injurious competition with the young, and from other causes, the wages earned by every adult woman are reduced to the lowest scale; and with the small earnings she has too often little command even over the necessaries of life. Her food is scanty and innutritious; her wages are forestalled; her clothing for the weekday is pawned to relieve that for Sunday; she can only procure the shelter of a roof by clubbing with a few of her companions to rent an attic room or a cellar. 2
