Doing It All: The Social Power of Single Motherhood
A feminist exploration of single motherhood and a passionate call to reclaim the power of mothering
In the United States, one child in five is raised by a single mother. Yet the single mom is still cast as victim or welfare queen, sexually irresponsible or too independent for her own (or her children's) good.In Doing It All, journalist and single mother Ruby Russell tells a different story, of single mothering not defined by loss but whole and powerful in its own right. She finds narratives of liberation in Victorian brothels and postwar British slums, in Black feminist theory and the grassroots activism of women fighting for welfare rights.
Doing It All is a personal quest for empowerment, a fierce critique of the systems that leave single moms marginalized and exhausted, and a call to reclaim mothering as the life force of sustainable, connected, and radically responsible communities.
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Become an affiliateRuby Russell is a single mom and environmental journalist. Originally from London, she currently lives in Berlin, Germany, with her kid and their cat.
"In this lucid and liberating book, Russell shows how single motherhood exposes the idiocy of the 'biological clock'; throws light on concepts of choice, freedom, responsibility and fulfilment; and reveals the shortcomings of society's organization of childrearing for all."--Eliane Glaser, author of Motherhood
"Russell's Doing It All is a riveting memoir-cum-cri-de-coeur-cum-manifesto for envisioning motherhood anew--as the anchor for a society built on caring, connection, and sustaining each other and the earth. Deftly marrying history with her own story, Russell gives us a vision of single mothers as avatars of a better world. It is a world we can all embrace, and all aspire to."--Kirsten Swinth, author of Feminism's Forgotten Fight
"A probing meditation on how society fails unmarried mothers...Buoyed by searching analysis and affecting stories, this makes a persuasive case for normalizing alternatives to the nuclear family."--Publishers Weekly
"A feisty new addition to feminist thinking...it mightily encourages dreams of a society where mothering is the most important activity of all."--Irish Independent