Rosanna Hertz

Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice (eBook, PDF)

How Women are Choosing Parenthood without Marriage and Creating the New American Family

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

A remarkable number of women today are taking the daunting step of having children outside of marriage. In Single By Chance, Mothers By Choice, Rosanna Hertz offers the first full-scale account of this fast-growing phenomenon, revealing why these middle class women took this unorthodox path and how they have managed to make single parenthood work for them. Hertz interviewed 65 women--ranging from physicians and financial analysts to social workers, teachers, and secretaries--women who speak candidly about how they manage their lives and families as single mothers. What Hertz discovers are not ideologues but reluctant revolutionaries, women who--whether straight or gay--struggle to conform to the conventional definitions of mother, child, and family. Having tossed out the rulebook in order to become mothers, they nonetheless adhere to time-honored rules about child-rearing. As they tell their stories, they shed light on their paths to motherhood, describing how they summoned up the courage to pursue their dream, how they broke the news to parents, siblings, friends, and co-workers, how they went about buying sperm from fertility banks or adopting children of different races. They recount how their personal and social histories intersected to enable them to pursue their dream of motherhood, and how they navigate daily life. What does it mean to be 'single' in terms of romance and parenting? How do women juggle earning a paycheck with parenting? What creative ways have women devised to shore up these families? How do they incorporate men into their child-centered families? This book provides concrete, informative answers to all these questions. A unique window on the future of the family, this book offers a gold mine of insight and reassurance for any woman contemplating this rewarding if unconventional step.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Oxford University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Oktober 2006
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780198039914
• Artikelnr.: 38151889

Autorenporträt

Rosanna Hertz is Luella LaMer Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies and Chair of the Women's Studies Department at Wellesley College. The author of the widely acclaimed More Equal Than Others, she is frequently interviewed by national print media on issues related to women, work, and the family.

Inhaltsangabe

* I. Prologue
* II. Acknowledgements
* III. Introduction
* IV. Part I
* Chapter 1: Why Cant I have What I Want?
* Chapter 2: Liminality and the Courage to Change: Making the Decision
to Become a Single Mother
* Chapter 3: Moving On: When Baby Makes Two
* V. Part II
* Part II Introduction
* Chapter 4: The Father As An Idea
* Chapter 5: Romance, Intimacy and Pregnancy: Father Involvement of
Marriage"
* Chapter 6: Adoption and Fitting In
* Part II Conclusion
* VI. Part III
* Part III Introduction: Recycling and Reconstituting Families
* Chapter 7: What Does Single Mean?
* Chapter 8: Downshifting Careers While Financing Motherhood: Relying
on the Gift-Giver, the Roommate and the Careworker
* Chapter 9: A World Without Men, Amen?
* Part III Conclusion: What Does It Mean to be a Good Mother
* VII. Chapter 10: Projecting Single Mothers Into the Future
* VIII. Epilogue: Completing Families, Completing Lives
* IX. Demographic Appendix: Featured Women
* Appendix: Methods and Sampling