Paper short abstract:

Since the 1980s, a growing number of American women are choosing to start a family without a male partner. These single mothers by choice (SMCs) are, for the most part, heterosexual, white, well-educated, financially-stable, and over 35. Not only are these women going against the norm, they do so in an era of “intensive mothering” (Hays 1996, Douglas and Michaels 2004), which places enormous responsibility on mothers to assure that their children have every possible advantage, and judges mothers for the way their children turn out. In this paper I use a case study approach to examine the fears, doubts, anxieties and judgments that populate the account of one American single mother by choice. Structured interviews about her parenting illuminate the anxieties produced by engaging in parenting that is “child-centered, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor intensive, and financially expensive,” and highlights the special stresses that appertain to doing so as an intentionally single mother.

Paper long abstract:

Since the 1980s, a growing number of American women are choosing to start a family without a male partner. These single mothers by choice (SMCs) are, for the most part, heterosexual, white, well-educated, financially-stable, and over 35. Not only are these women going against the norm, they do so in an era of "intensive mothering" (Hays 1996, Douglas and Michaels 2004), which places enormous responsibility on mothers to assure that their children have every possible advantage, and judges mothers for the way their children turn out. In this paper I use a case study approach to examine the fears, doubts, anxieties and judgments that populate the account of one American single mother by choice. Structured interviews about her parenting illuminate the anxieties produced by engaging in parenting that is "child-centered, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor intensive, and financially expensive," and highlights the special stresses that appertain to doing so as an intentionally single mother.