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China Star (Anthropology Major)
"'You Aren't the First and You Won't be the Last': Unmarried Motherhood in Contemporary Rural Ireland"
Sponsor: Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Anthropology
Project Description
My research examines the changes in the prevalence of unmarried mothers in Ireland nearly a 20% between 1988 and 1999, the church and community response towards these women, and alternative interpretations of the lifestyles and demographics of single mothers. In recent years the response towards single parents has moved from one of social exclusion, condemnation towards one of outward acceptance and coping, a shift clearly influenced by the increasing prevalence of unmarried mothers and on account of moral condemnation of the alternatives of social exclusion of the mother and her child, adoption and abortion. Members of the clergy and other religious cite similar reasons for their own acceptance of single parents and for the Church’s changing attitude towards those who might have previously fallen outside the pale. I have chosen to focus on limited number of case studies and allowing for voices to be given to a few of the people who make up the statistics in an area which has received little attention in other research on the subject. Perhaps in light of this approach the women I worked with differ from those described in previous qualitative studies. The issues surrounding single parenthood in Ireland also lead to broader questions concerning the meanings of marriage, religion, sexuality and family in a rapidly changing society.
Scholar's Photo
Scholar's Journal
June 6, 2001
We’re at the conference and I’m scared and wondering what I’m really going to do with this summer, why am I going to Ireland again. I’m wondering what possessed me, as someone primarily interested in the issues of women and children, to choose a topic that deals almost exclusively with single men. At breakfast my advisor Nancy Scheper-Hughes said if she was going to Ireland she would look at the unmarried mothers. I had been thinking the same for quite a while, and so I set off not really sure of what my research question was anymore but ready to wait and watch and see what was most relevant once I got to the field.
June 14, 2001
Dublin could easily be confused for nearly any American city. The professors at Maynooth have been extraordinarily helpful. Everyone seems to agree about the unmarried mothers.
June 23, 2001
County Mayo is closer to what I imagined Ireland to be, at least at first glance, stone walls on the green hills satisfying my minds eye. And perhaps to my surprise the question of unmarried parents is both a larger and more accepted issue here than I might have thought. When I first started talking to people about my project I was afraid to even bring single parents into the conversation. But after talking to some friends last night I think I’m going to go ahead and pursue the project. I move into my own house tomorrow.
July 6, 2001
These first few weeks have been frustrating. It’s a bit lonely here a lot of the time and everyone is really busy or on holiday. I’ve got a few leads but I’m not sure that the project is going to work out at all. Perhaps I’ll even need to rework a new thesis topic when I go back to the states. But the few interviews I have managed to get underway have been very good and I suppose at this point it’s about building relationships. Things are slowed down a bit as well by my attempts to go through the proper channels to meet people rather than approaching them directly which I think is good due to the sensitivity of the topic.
July 20, 2001
Things are going better now, the women I’m working with at this point are fantastic and they have been amazingly open with me. I’m still a little shaky, if everything will pull together by the end but overall it’s looking good. My boyfriend Paul has also arrived and that’s helping immensely with the loneliness and seems to be helping me participate a bit more normally in local social life.
July 30, 2001
We spent the weekend in Co. Donegal with one of the women I am working closely with and her fiancée. It was absolutely fantastic; we saw some amazing places and had wonderful conversations. The question of unmarried parenthood is much more diverse than I ever could have anticipated and I am loving fieldwork.
August 5, 2001
These final weeks are jam packed with interviews, meetings and goodbyes. I can tell it’s pretty much going to be 8am to midnight everyday from here until the end. I wish I had more time, but at this point I’m also feeling like I really do have a cohesive project. It’s amazing how after the long wait things really have come together.
And now having returned from a summer of fieldwork I am writing and reading and meeting with faculty here at Berkeley. I feel that I’m a lot closer to understanding my discipline in the sense that I don’t feel that I know as much about it as I did when I started. Fieldwork and research are far more complicated than I previously thought and at on account of that much more rewarding. I am amazed by the amount one can learn by just listening, my best interviews were the ones where I was able to sit quiet for an hour and a half and not interrupt, but it took a while for me to learn how to do that and I certainly still have a lot to learn. Overall I couldn’t have asked for a better summer or a more supportive and caring group of mentors and fellow scholars.
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