The 21st century sustains one significant commonality with the decades of the preceding century. The majority of individuals parenting on their own and heading one-parent families continue to be mothers. Even so, current trends in globalization (economic, political, cultural) along with technological advancement, shifts in political, economic and social policy, contemporary demographic shifts, changing trends in the labor sector linked to global economics, and developments in legislative and judicial output, all signify the distinctiveness of the current moment with regard to family patterns and social norms. Seeking to contribute to an existing body of literature focused on single motherhood and lone parenting in the 20th century, this collection explores and illuminates a more recent landscape of 21st century debates, policies and experiences surrounding single motherhood and one-parent headed families. Reviews and Endorsements: “This collection represents a significant contribution to the contemporary study of lone mothering, especially through perspectives that celebrate this experience and point out its unique parenting benefits, as well as those that reframe our understanding of single teen mothers. The essays in this volume lay the foundation for a more nuanced and multifaceted exploration of single motherhood in the 21st century.” —Tatjana Takseva, Department of English and Women and Gender Studies Program, Saint Mary’s University, Canada “Maki Motapanyane brings together an outstanding collection of essays to explore our fastest growing family form: the lone parent — usually lone mother — family. This exciting volume showcases a diversity of scholarly methods and disciplines — including media studies, women’s studies, auto-ethnography, sociology and policy studies — to analyse lone mothering. The stand-out contribution here is the emphasis on diversity and the associated critique of heteronormativity with reference to two-parent families, though also, more interestingly, in relation to lone parents themselves. Here we see lone mothers as an internally heterogeneous group. This volume is essential reading for all who are interested in the rise and diversification of lone mother families.“ —Petra Bueskens, Honorary Fellow, The University of Melbourne Table of Contents: Acknowledgements Introduction Motherhood, Mothering, and Lone/Single Parenting in Contemporary Perspective Maki Motapanyane I: DISCOURSE, MEDIA, AND REPRESENTATION Mothering in Dystopia: Lone Parenting in a Post-Apocalyptic World Nancy Bressler and Lara Lengel Do Two a Family Make? Hollywood Engages Intentional Single Motherhood Katherine Mack Every Child Needs a Father: The Shield and the Postfeminist Desire for Single Motherhood Dwayne Avery Courageous Mothering: Katniss Everdeen as Outlaw Mother in The Hunger Games Trilogy Danielle Russell II: THE EXPERIENTIAL Single Motherhood: Mythical Madness and Invisible “Insanity” Ellen Hauser Single Mother Adoption: A Sociologist’s Journey Linda M. Burns Great Lakes to Great Walls: Reflections of a Single Mom on Young Motherhood and Living Overseas Natasha Steer The Lone Ranger: Single Mothering, Then and Now B. Lee Murray Single Lesbian Mothers Lara Descartes III: POLICY, RESISTANCE, AND ACTIVISM Historicizing the Marginalization of Single Mothers: An Australian Perspective Christin Quirk Single-Parent Families, Mother-Led Households, and Well-Being Rachel Lamdin Hunter One-Parent Families in Spain: Exclusions and Social Networks Rosa Ortiz-Monera, Dino Di Nella, and Elisabet Almeda-Samaranch Escaping a Life in Violence? Migrant Mother-Families in Germany: Coping with Gender-Based Violence, Undermining Stereotypes, and Claiming Agency Lydia Potts and Ulrike Lingen-Ali I Play, Therefore, I Am: Resisting the “Work” of Single Motherhood in a Culture of Labour-Intensive Parenting Elizabeth Bruno Scripting Stories of Resistance: Young Single Parents and Theatre of the Oppressed Deborah L. Byrd and Richard J. Piatt Single Mothers’ Activism against Poverty Governance in the U.S. Child Welfare System Shihoko Nakagawa About the Contributors About the Editor: Maki Motapanyane is an Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies in the Department of Humanities at Mount Royal University. Her teaching is rooted in liberatory pedagogy, focused in courses on colonialism and de-colonization, global gender issues and transnationalism, environmental justice/liberation ecology, and Hip-Hop culture. Her research spans the fields of feminist theory, motherhood and cultural studies, with academic publications featuring a range of inter-related thematic interests including feminist theory, transnational feminist research methods, mothering and motherhood, racialized comedy in Canada, and gender in Hip-Hop culture. She is the editor of Mothering in Hip-Hop Culture: Representation and Experience (Demeter Press, 2012), and co-editor (with Roksana Badruddoja) of “New Maternalisms”: Tales of Motherwork (Dislodging the Unthinkable) (Demeter Press, 2016). |