{"id":232,"date":"2026-07-20T14:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/?page_id=232"},"modified":"2026-09-10T07:17:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T07:17:36","slug":"single-motherhood","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/project-strands\/single-motherhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Single motherhood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The number of single mothers rose dramatically during the late twentieth century, yet we know little about their lives because historians have primarily focused on women\u2019s roles within nuclear families. This strand of the project explores single motherhood through the lens of Gingerbread, a self-help organisation established by and for one-parent families in 1970. Gingerbread consisted of a national network of local groups which provided a range of different services from informal support and social activities to advice centres and nurseries. Through an analysis of archival records of the local groups and their activities, this research uncovers the ways that single mothers were politicised by their diverse experiences of raising children alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key research questions include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What challenges did single mothers face during the late twentieth century and how did Gingerbread attempt to address them, both locally and nationally?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To what extent did Gingerbread address the specific circumstances of Black and Asian single mothers, low-income single mothers, and lesbian single mothers?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What was the relationship between Gingerbread and the state and how did this shape the services it provided and the issues it campaigned on?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How did the organisation and its membership evolve between 1970 and c. 2000 in light of social, political, economic, and legislative shifts during this period?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"217\" height=\"288\" src=\"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Picture3.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph of a mostly black and white portrait undated poster which reads \u201cOnly you and the children? Join Gingerbread and meet the others with the same problems!\u201d A smiling orange gingerbread man accompanies the text.\" class=\"wp-image-280\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Undated leaflet courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gingerbread.org.uk\/\">Gingerbread<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The number of single mothers rose dramatically during the late twentieth century, yet we know little about their lives because historians have primarily focused on women\u2019s roles within nuclear families. This strand of the project explores single motherhood through the lens of Gingerbread, a self-help organisation established by and for one-parent families in 1970. Gingerbread [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":228,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"iawp_total_views":17,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-232","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281,"href":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/232\/revisions\/281"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}