The House of Eve

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses forced adoption and racism.

In The House of Eve, high school student Ruby Pearsall is sent to a maternity home for unwed mothers. There were many of these homes in the United States in the years before the famous case Roe v. Wade (1973), which legalized abortion. Like the novel’s House of Magdalene, many of these homes urged mothers to give up their babies for adoption, sometimes failing to inform them of other options. It is estimated that over 80 percent of babies born to residents were put up for adoption. Many women went to these homes to hide their pregnancies so others would not know of their sexual conduct, but some were pressured.

The homes were created to save women and their families from the shame associated with unplanned pregnancies in the 1950s and 1960s, and like the House of Magdalene, administrators sometimes used shame to keep residents in check and convince them to give up their babies. Many of these homes were run by religious institutions, including the Catholic Church and Salvation Army, and like House of Magdalene, they expected residents to pay for their care—sometimes by serving these institutions. These homes still exist today but in fewer numbers; some provide parenting classes for their residents.

In the novel and real life, race plays a role in the placement of women, especially during the 1950s and 1960s. Many homes only accepted white mothers, forcing Black mothers to keep their babies, even if unprepared to do so, and seek help from family members. Part of this discrepancy was because of a pervasive racist belief that Black women were promiscuous.