When Joss Shawyer was expecting twins in 1969 she came under pressure to agree to give them up for adoption because she was a single mother. This is the incredible story of how she fought back and helped hundreds of other single mothers raise their children themselves. Joss Shawyer, pregnant with twins, was shown into a room of the Salvation Army Bethany Home in Auckland, along with other expectant mothers.
The class was focused on the fact that those assembled - many of whom were actually girls, much younger than Shawyer, 23 - were unmarried. In 1969 that was deemed unacceptable, especially for the unborn babies. The social worker leading the session wrote in large letters across the blackboard: “What can you offer your child?” Nobody responded.
“I remember clearly the shock and anger I felt as I realised the breaking down process was underway,” says Shawyer, who is now 78. “Finally she asked us to comment. I broke the long resentful silence by saying sarcastically, ‘The answer, of course, is nothing.
’” Shawyer was kicked out and asked not to return. As she left the social worker was writing on the blackboard: “What does a child need - two parents.” Most in attendance had no means to argue - the domestic purposes benefit (DPB) was yet to be introduced, and ashamed families often wanted nothing to do with a child born out of wedlock.
Shawyer was older. She’d left a job as a restaurant hostess at the Intercontinental Hotel because an obvious pregnancy was.
