 | Unsung Heroines: Single Mothers and the American Dream Subjects: Single mothers -- United States -- Social conditions; Single mothers -- United States -- Economic conditions; Welfare recipients -- United States; Observing that single mothers embody the best American values-"courage, determination, commitment to others, and independence of spirit"-sociologist Sidel contends that "rather than being stigmatized, they should be celebrated and indeed applauded." Sidel's 50 subjects are diverse in age, class, race, ethnicity and marital status (including unmarried by departure, divorce or death). They recount the different paths that led them to single motherhood, their struggles to provide for their children, and their own feelings of loss (of income, self-esteem, emotional and social support, youth, etc.). They describe the steps they took to turn their lives around and recall the forces (people, institutions and faith) that aided and sometimes thwarted them. Sidel looks back at the different male and female responses "to intimate heterosexual relationships and to the enormous responsibility of caring for children" and forward to an agenda that would recognize that "the well-being of children and their families is the responsibility not only of the families themselves but of government at all levels and of civil society as well." Sidel's mothers tell individual tales, but the effect is cumulative, allowing the author to sound an alarm about the real needs of American families in all their varieties. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved Sidel Ruth : Ruth Sidel , Professor of Sociology at Hunter College, is author of many books including Keeping Women and Children Last: America's War on the Poor (revised edition, 1998) and On Her Own: Growing Up in the Shadow of the American Dream (1990). |
