Child Custody and the Ideal of Motherhood in Late Nineteenth Century New York

Corinne Schiff

Georgetown University Law Center; Class of 1998

The more recent ideal of motherhood emerged with "changes in private custody law and in the public law of neglect to demonstrate how the ideal of motherhood both advanced women's legal rights and subjected women to state control." The late nineteenth century "ideal of motherhood" which gave women an advantage in child custody hearings also institutionalized notions that women's roles should be limited to motherhood. New York state laws are used as a case study for changes to demonstrate what occurred throughout the country.

Part I addresses the prevalent ideas about motherhood and childhood that emerged during the nineteenth century, as well as the influences of the changing economy upon such ideas. Part II examines how those ideas altered child custody laws in New York so that mothers, rather than fathers, became the presumptive custodians following divorce or separation. Part III explores how the ideal of motherhood was used in New York neglect proceedings as a justification for removing children from their mothers, thereby rendering the nineteenth century ideal of motherhood both a controlling and liberating force for women.

Vol. IV, No. 2, p. 403 (1997)

 

Revised July 17, 2003 (MD)