Juffer, an associate professor of English and women’s studies at Pennsylvania State University, explores the recent cultural valorization of the single mother figure that has emerged as the unlikely heroic and seductive voice of the new family.
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Long perceived as the ultimate symbol of social breakdown and sexual irresponsibility, the single mother is now, in the context of welfare-to-work policies, often hailed as the spokesperson for hard work and self sufficiency.
In Single Mother: The Emergence of the Domestic Intellectual (288 pages/$70, cloth; $21, paper), published this month by NYU Press, author Jane Juffer examines how and why the image of the single mother has changed. Almost 15 years ago Dan Quayle was denouncing TV character Murphy Brown for making the decision to become a single mother; now President George W. Bush is applauding single mothers for “heroic work” and positive on-screen representations of single mothers abound, from The Gilmore Girls to Sex and the City to American Idol.
Juffer, an associate professor of English and women’s studies at Pennsylvania State University, explores the recent cultural valorization of the single mother figure that has emerged as the unlikely heroic and seductive voice of the new family. Drawing on her own life as a single mother, interviews with dozens of other single mothers, cultural representations, and policies on welfare, immigration, childcare, and child custody, Juffer analyzes this contingent acceptance of single mothers. She also critiques the relentless emphasis on self-sufficiency to the exclusion of community and shows the remarkable organizing skills of these mothers.
At a moment when one-third of all babies are born to single moms, Single Mother is a fascinating and necessary examination of these new “domestic intellectuals.”
Juffer is the author of At Home with Pornography: Women, Sex, and Everyday Life.