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.
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
