The Story of Adoption in Women's History

Women's History Month is a time to remember such landmarks as the Seneca Falls Convention, the Suffragette Movement, the fight for pay equity and equal representation. Women across the Nation, and the World, are speaking up and fighting for a more equitable world for all. While it is important to take time this month to remember how far women have come, it is equally as important to remember how far women have yet to go and examine the issues still facing women today.

An often silenced group in the fight for equality, are women who have made the decision to place their children for adoption. While birth mothers still have a long road ahead in terms of equality in adoption, there have been significant and vital changes in the practice of domestic infant adoption in the United States.

Orphan Train

The Post-Civil War Era marked a period known as the Orphan Train Movement, believed to be responsible for the “placement” of nearly 200,000 orphans.

These children were orphans or abandoned youth; the children of immigrants or Civil War soldiers who were then put on an Orphan Train to more rural parts of the United States and indentured as farm labor or household workers. This practice continued until the early 1900’s when finally, the exploitation was realized and action was taken, resulting in the creation of childcare agencies and laws that promoted adoptive placements over indenture.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is a historical fiction novel that is based on the real life stories of those who survived the orphan trains. A heart-wrenching book, Orphan Train gives readers a glimpse into the horrific experiences of children forced aboard the orphan trains and shows how it affected their lives for generations.

For years, women have made an impact on child welfare:

• In the late 1800’s, Jane Addams made impressive strides on Chicago’s west side when she founded The Hull House, which would eventually become a 13-building complex that provided education, community, and social services for the low-income urban neighborhood. That sense of community and emphasis on collaborative, well-rounded care defined a new standard of child welfare.
• 1917 brought about the Nation’s first adoption law, where Minnesota required all adoptive placements be investigated and approved and limited the access to records for all parties involved.
• In the 1920’s, Grace Abbott took over the Children’s Bureau and, along with others, successfully passed the Sheppard-Towner Act, which provided federal grants for child welfare, as well as maternal and child health. A few years later, Grace Abbott crafted sections of the Social Security Act, which would provide funding to states for foster care, adoption assistance and other child welfare initiatives.

Georgia Tann & Baby Scoop Era

From 1945-1974, our Nation entered what is known as the Baby Scoop Era; a time where adoptive placements were at an all-time high, and adoption was an acceptable means of growing a family. In a post-World War II world, “illegitimate” births rose three times the prior national average due to a rise in unwed couples and a shift in the moral compass of younger generations.

Georgia Tann began working at the Mississippi Children’s Home Society in the early 1920’s and was soon terminated for her “questionable child placing methods.” After her termination, Georgia Tann moved to Memphis, TN and took an executive secretary job with the Tennessee Children’s Home Society; it wasn’t long before she took over the entire organization and officially began trafficking children in 1924. With a slew of people in on her illegal and unethical practice, Georgia Tann placed over 3,000 children for adoption between 1940 - 1950 alone. To learn more about Georgia Tann and the baby scoop era, Before We Were Yours is a historical fiction novel that is followed up with a first hand account from those who were victims of the baby scoop era, Before & After.

The Baby Scoop Era also resulted in the harshest adoption laws and practices – sealed birth records, limited or no access to information, coercion and forced placements. In 1935, New York Governor Herbert Lehman signed into law legislation that would seal birth certificates from New York adoptees…Governor Lehman adopted one of his children from Georgia Tann. Many of these laws are still in effect today, with more than half of the state’s restricting adoptees' access to their original birth certificates. Laws that adoption advocates, birth mothers, and adoptees are still fighting to overturn.

To learn more about access to original birth certificates, and how you can help, visit Adoptee Rights Law Center.

Recent History

In the last 10 years, incredible women have stepped into the ring and written books that shed a light on the history of adoption in the US, including one woman’s journey to reunite with her birth son and follow the stories of birth mothers who placed their children for adoption prior to Roe v. Wade.

American Baby by Gabrielle Glaser is a must read for every adoption professional and every prospective adoptive family, her best selling book follows the journey of an unwed woman in post-war America forced to place her son for adoption, and their search to find each other, all while taking readers on a journey through the history of adoption in the US.

The Girls Who Went Away, written by Ann Fessler, is the harrowing story of nearly 100 voices of women who surrendered their children for adoption in the years leading up to Roe v. Wade. Fessler, an adoptee herself who was surrendered during those years, sheds an imperative light on the social history of adoption.

Today, incredible women across the US are speaking up and fighting for the rights of birth mothers and expectant mothers. Ensuring they have access to basic rights such as free post-placement care, separate and equal legal representation, and legally enforceable Post Adoption Contact Agreements. States across the US are mandating separate legal representation for women while signing relinquishment paperwork, translators for non-English speaking women, and enforceable Post Adoption Contact Agreements. There are agencies in the US that solely work with expectant women, ensuring they are a top priority in the adoption process and are able to safely navigate private adoption. While these changes might seem insignificant, to the ten thousand women that place their children for adoption each year, they represent so much.

There is still so much work to be done to ensure adoption is a safe option for women, but these changes represent respect, equality, and honor – something birth mothers have been fighting for, for generations.

PairTree is proud to support the work being done. And with our 5% Fund, our Adoptive Families are contributing financially to organizations that provide lifetime support to birth mothers by listening, learning, and supporting their community. This year, we pledged our entire 5% Fund to two organizations: The Lifetime Healing Foundation, who provide lifetime support for Birth Mothers, and Equity Before Birth: the organization that objectively supports Expectant Women who are deciding on their best path.