Cover of In defense of single-parent families

In defense of single-parent families

Nancy Dowd details the primal justifications for stigmatizing single-parent families, marshalling an impressive array of resources about single parents that portrays a very different picture of these families. She describes them in all their forms, with particular attention to the differential treatment given never-married and divorced single parents, and to the impact of gender, race, and class.

Read more

Emphasizing that all families face significant conflicts between work and family responsibilities - a conflict thrown in sharp relief in single-parent families - Dowd argues many two-parent families in fact function as single-parent care-giving households. The success or failure of families, she contends, has little to do with form. Many of the problems faced by single-parent families mirror problems faced by all families.

Illustrating the harmful impact of current laws concerning divorce, welfare, and employment, Dowd makes a powerful case for centering policy around the welfare and equality of all children. A thought-provoking examination of the stereotypes, realities, and possibilities of single-parent families, In Defense of Single-Parent Families asks us to consider the true purpose of a family.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 200 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked In defense of single-parent families? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked In defense of single-parent families. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Unmarried Parents’ Rights (and Responsibilities) Shares single parents, legal status, law
  2. Single parents and dating Shares single parents, single parent families
  3. Do I have a daddy? Shares single parents, single parent families
  4. Teens with single parents Shares single parents, single parent families

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Expecting My Billionaire Stepbrother's Baby - Part Two
  2. Expecting My Billionaire Stepbrother's Baby - Part Three
  3. Single Daddy (The Single Brothers Book 1)
  4. Expecting My Billionaire Stepbrother's Baby - Part One

“If it was the single parent families that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Changes in lone parenthood, 1989 to 1993
  2. Modern Hindu law, codified and uncodified
  3. Hobo Mom
  4. The lucky

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Flat Broke with Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform
  2. Manufacturing "bad mothers"
  3. Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce
  4. Shattered Bonds: The Color Of Child Welfare