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Good Enough Mothering? Lone mothers and their children currently comprise almost 20 per cent of all families with dependent children in Britain. Their numbers have nearly trebled since 1970. In Europe and in the OECD countries they are the biggest group of poor families among households with children. Politicians and the media have focused on them as a cause of a broader social breakdown. Yet little is known about the causes, consequences and conditions of lone motherhood in the UK and across different societies. This book addresses these often controversial issues. Good Enough Mothering? provides accounts of historical patterns of mothering and ideologies of the family, cross-national comparisons of policies and experiences of lone mothers in developed and developing countries. It analyses recent social policies and legislative changes in family law, the Child Support Act and discourses about the creation of an underclass in Britain and the United States. Seldom a specific focus of feminist study, lone motherhood has generally been considered through studies of divorce, custody and social welfare. This book contributes significantly to both the feminist and social policy literature on lone mothers. Elizabeth Bortolaia Silva is Research Fellow and runs the Gender Analysis and Policy Unit in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds. Good Enough Mothering? Feminist perspectives on lone motherhood Edited by Elizabeth Bortolaia Silva London and New York First published 1996 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Routledge is an International Thomson Publishing company © 1996 Elizabeth Bortolaia Silva, selection and editorial matter; individual chapters, the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-43428-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-74252-4 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-12889-7 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-12890-0 (pbk) Contents List of contributors vii Introduction Elizabeth Bortolaia Silva 1 1 The transformation of mothering Elizabeth Bortolaia Silva 10 2 Deconstructing motherhood Carol Smart 37 3 Mothering and social responsibilities in a cross-cultural perspective Henrietta L.Moore 58 4 Diversity in patterns of parenting and household formation Carolyn Baylies 76 5 Mothers, workers, wives: comparing policy approaches to supporting lone mothers Jane Millar 97 6 Rational economic man or lone mothers in context? The uptake of paid work Rosalind Edwards and Simon Duncan 114 7 ‘Parental responsibility’: the reassertion of private patriarchy? Lorraine M.Fox Harding 130 v vi Contents 8 Social anxieties about lone motherhood and ideologies of the family: two sides of the same coin Mary McIntosh 148 9 Debates on disruption: what happens to the children of lone parents Louie Burghes 157 10 Social constructions of lone motherhood: a case of competing discourses Ann Phoenix 175 11 Unpalatable choices and inadequate families: lone mothers and the