A War Born Family by Kori A. Graves

Author:Kori A. Graves [Graves, Kori A. & Graves, Kori A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS000000 History / General
ISBN: 9781479872329
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: 2020-01-28T05:00:00+00:00

Domesticity, Maternal Care, and US Child Welfare Standards

Social workers were concerned about African American women’s performance of paid labor because of what it suggested about their femininity and their ability to provide maternal care. Social workers had the job of assessing adoptive applicants’ gender conformity, and they paid particular attention to potential adoptive mothers’ adherence to emerging standards of femininity. Child welfare agencies and staff expected their adopting parents to display gender normative behaviors, and social workers diligently noted their positive and negative impressions of applicants’ performance of their gender roles. The notes about the families that applied to adopt a Korean black child in the 1950s and 1960s in the ISS case files demonstrate how these assessments influenced social workers’ decisions. For example, the social worker assigned to the Tanner family’s case observed that Mrs. Tanner seemed to dominate her husband. Even though she was concerned that Mrs. Tanner’s behavior might cause problems in the future, this social worker was comforted that Mr. Tanner was a successful businessman who let his wife run the house. Likewise, in 1956, ISS officials were initially concerned about the Curtis family because of the seven-year age difference between the young husband and his older wife. The age difference made social officials wonder if Mrs. Tanner was a controlling wife. But the social worker conducting their case study assured ISS officials that Mrs. Curtis “looks upon her husband as the man of the house.” Based on her observations, the social worker also concluded that Mr. Curtis was a good breadwinner. Child welfare professionals applied subjective and objective measures to assess prospective adoptive parents. Characteristics like an age difference that might give a wife authority over her husband or behaviors that suggested female dominance represented challenges to the model of domesticity that many associated with healthy adoptive families.24

Femininity mattered as a quality associated with successful mothering. Many social workers assumed that women who seemed aggressive in speech or mannerisms lacked the maternal skills necessary to parent a child with whom they shared no biological ties. This idea explains why ISS officials were pleased to hear about families like the Lamberts, an African American couple attempting to adopt a Korean black child in 1955. The report on this family’s home study includes the notation that the husband was “thoroughly masculine in appearance while [the wife] is very feminine.”25 The social worker assessing the Lawrence family in 1957 had a similar reaction. The Lawrences made a lasting impression because of their adherence to the male breadwinner and female caregiver family model. Mr. Lawrence was a house painter and owned an apartment building. The social worker conducting their home study happily reported that he seemed in charge of his family. She also commented on the ways Mrs. Lawrence displayed a maternal and feminine nature. The note explained that Mrs. Lawrence tended to all of the domestic duties well. She had been a dressmaker and practical nurse but left paid labor after having a hysterectomy. The social worker was also impressed that Mrs.

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