Good Enough Mothering?: Feminist Perspectives on Lone Motherhood

by Silva,Elizabeth Bortolaia

• ISBN13: 9780415128902
• ISBN10: 0415128900
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1996-08-13
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Currently, lone mothers and their children make up almost twenty percent of families with dependent children in the UK, a threefold increase since 1970. Yet, while they are often cited by politicians as both a symptom and cause of social breakdown, relatively little is known of the causes, consequences and conditions of lone motherhood in Britain and throughout Europe. Good Enough Mothering?provides accounts of historical patterns of mothering and ideologies of the family with cross-national comparisons of policies and experience of lone motherhood in developed and developing countries. Areas studied include: Britain, the US, Norway, South Africa, Kenya, Thailand, India, Brazil and the Caribean. This engaging edited collection will appeal to students of social policy, women's studies and social work.

Table of Contents

Good Enough Mothering? Editor's Introduction

The Transformation of Mothering

Deconstructing Motherhood

Mothering and Social Responsibilities in a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Diversity in Patterns of Parenting and Household Formation

Mothers, Workers or Wives? Policy approaches to supporting lone mothers in comparative perspective

Rational Economic Man or Lone Mothers in Context? The uptake of paid work

Parental Responsibility: The reassertion of private patriachy?

Social Anxieties About Lone Motherhood and Ideologies of the Family: Two sides of the same coin

Debates on Disruption: What happens to the children of lone parents?

Social Constructions of Lone Motherhood: A case of competing discourses

Unpalatable Choices and Inadequate Families: Lone mothers and the underclass debate

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