Sinners, Scroungers, Saints: lone mothers, past and present

The Women’s Library at London Metropolitan University continues its programme of groundbreaking exhibitions with Sinners, Scroungers, Saints: lone mothers, past and present. The exhibition addresses the ways in which lone mothers have been represented over time. Developed in collaboration with One Parent Families|Gingerbread, the exhibition showcases new research and tells the stories of lone mothers from the 1700s to the present day, challenging perceptions and questioning stereotypes. It will be supported by a season of events, including an academic symposium on new research into lone parenthood.

In modern life, lone mothers are often marginalised and are some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in British society. Historically they have been stigmatised as ‘sinners’ and more recently branded as ‘scroungers’, for taking up council housing and benefits. However, new research shows that the structures of family life that many people believe to be new since the 1960s – cohabitation, birth outside marriage and transient and extended family relationships – have a much longer history than is generally appreciated, and that children have been brought up in multiple family forms throughout history.

Sinners, Scroungers, Saints will explore the many reasons why women become lone parents, from relationship breakdown to forced separation and widowhood, or, although rare, the independent choice to ‘go it alone’. From First World War widows to families divided by asylum and exile, from the fictional characters represented in 1960s’ novels and films such as A Taste of Honey to the‘Vicky Pollard’ stereotype of teenage mothers, the exhibition will contain archive material as well as personal testimonies that tell a rich and wide range of stories.

The Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University Sinners, Scroungers, Saints: lone mothers, past and present until 29 March 2008. The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University, Old Castle Street, London E1 7NT, t: 0207 320 2222 or visit www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk

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