Description:
Single Mother by Choice chronicles the journey of Ann, a 41-year-old woman throughout her intensive mothering of three donor-conceived children from infancy to tween years. This analysis of one family's life illuminates the complexities of twenty-first, middle-class American motherhood, whether single or not, and the synergies between 2nd wave feminism and neoliberalism.
Brief description:
Linda L. Layne is the author of Home and Homeland: The Dialogics of Tribal and National Identities in Jordan (1994, Princeton University Press) and Motherhood Lost: A Feminist Account of Pregnancy Loss in America (2003, Routledge) and co-producer of a television series on pregnancy loss. She has edited or co-edited numerous volumes on motherhood, parenting and consumer culture. She now studies heterosexual single mothers by choice, lesbian moms and gay dads.
Review Quotes:
"This is an excellent book; it is a sophisticated and timely ethnography of a new form of 21st century household." - Mark P. Whitaker, University of Kentucky
"This book has a very creative approach to understanding new alternatives to family formation, especially in the face of the right-wing backlash against women's push to achieve gender equality in family and intimate life." - Cynthia Daniels, Rutgers University