Durban, Ellen Hope;
(2025)
Lesbians' Experiences of Marriage, Motherhood, and Divorce in England and Wales: 1945-1999.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis is the first extensive examination of how women – who sexually desired women – negotiated marriage to men, motherhood, and divorce in post-1945 England and Wales. These women, despite their desire for other women, ceded to economic and social pressures to marry and often remained married for many years, especially after having children. Some found means to balance relationships with women with obligations to their husbands and children. Others either suppressed their desire or divorced. This thesis explores the domestic lives of married lesbians, which have been obscured by the focus on “coming out” narratives and on the experiences of lesbian mothers who litigated custody. Many wives identified as lesbian, which challenged contemporary perceptions of a lesbian identity and continues to challenge the concept of a nuclear family. Lesbian mothers were influenced by contemporary media that asserted that lesbian wives always or nearly always “lost” custody of their children in court upon divorce. This thesis corrects enduring misconceptions about lesbian custody cases through examination of the methodological issues of using contemporary media. It also argues that the Children Act 1989 had the greatest effect on the outcomes of custody cases involving lesbian mothers. Activism by the homosexual and feminist communities was a much less significant force driving change: it was limited to helping lesbian mothers operate within the existing legal framework and was hampered by lack of funds and volunteers. Until the 1980s and 1990s, lesbians were a significant minority of wives.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Lesbians' Experiences of Marriage, Motherhood, and Divorce in England and Wales: 1945-1999 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| Keywords: | activism, bisexuality, divorce, Identity, lesbian, marriage, homosexuality |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of History |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10212249 |
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