Disciplining the Aborting Woman: Social Work and Changing Discourses of Race, Class and Reproduction in 1950s Australia

In this article Barbara Baird examines in detail a report on women suffering post-abortion complications who were admitted to a large public hospital in Australia in 1956. The 1950s were a period of massive population growth in Australia, fuelled significantly by migration, when the whiteness of an Anglo-dominated population and culture was put under stress by non-Anglo European migrants and by new discourses of racial assimilation. Examination of the report, written by a member of the hospital’s social work department, enables consideration of the place of women having abortions in the changing social and discursive environments of post-war Australia. Baird reads the report as an early sign of an increase in the surveillance and regulation of women having abortions in a period when reform of the criminal law relating to abortion was still a decade away. She argues that understanding the logic of the report depends on consideration of the racialised meanings of changing discourses of reproduction and femininity.In this article Barbara Baird examines in detail a report on women suffering post-abortion complications who were admitted to a large public hospital in Australia in 1956. The 1950s were a period of massive population growth in Australia, fuelled significantly by migration, when the whiteness of an Anglo-dominated population and culture was put under stress by non-Anglo European migrants and by new discourses of racial assimilation. Examination of the report, written by a member of the hospital’s social work department, enables consideration of the place of women having abortions in the changing social and discursive environments of post-war Australia. Baird reads the report as an early sign of an increase in the surveillance and regulation of women having abortions in a period when reform of the criminal law relating to abortion was still a decade away. She argues that understanding the logic of the report depends on consideration of the racialised meanings of changing discourses of reproduction and femininity

The resignation of the Governor-General: family drama and national reproduction

Peter Hollingworth resigned his position as Governor-General of Australia in May 2003 more than three years short of the term for which he had been appointed. His resignation came after nearly eighteen months of controversy over how he had handled cases of the sexual abuse of children while in his previous job as Archbishop of the Brisbane Diocese of the Anglican Church and the release of a report of a church inquiry which found him culpable

Professional Concerns: Remedial Programs: Some Strategies for Creating a Supportive Learning Environment

Professional Concerns is a regular column devoted to the interchange of ideas among those interested in reading instruction. Send your comments and contributions to the editor. If you have questions about reading that you wish to have answered) the ed£tor will find respondents to answer them. Address correspondence to R. Baird Shuman) Department of English) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Urbana) Illinois) 61801

The Journey of a Successful Ex-Offender: A Case Study

Consider that adult education has turned its focus on transformative learning and is considered a framework for both research and practice; the purpose of this study was to explore transformative learning and to consider whether it is applicable and/or relevant to the experiences of a successful ex-offender, Jonathan Queen