Lesbian Mothers Accounts of Gender in American Culture

• Main Author: Lewin, Ellen (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Press 1993
• Subjects: Lesbian studies; Gender studies: women; Political science & theory; Gay and Lesbian studies / LGBTQ studies; Social and cultural anthropology; Sociology: family and relationships
• Online Access: OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: description of the publication

Within a society that long considered "lesbian motherhood" a contradiction in terms, what were the experiences of lesbian mothers at the end of the twentieth century? In this illuminating book, lesbian mothers tell their stories of how they became mothers; how they see their relationships with their children, relatives, lovers, and friends and with their children's fathers and sperm donors; how they manage child-care arrangements and financial difficulties; and how they deal with threats to custody. Ellen Lewin's unprecedented research on lesbian mothers in the San Francisco area captured a vivid portrait of the moment before gay and lesbian parenting moved into the mainstream of U.S. culture. Drawing on interviews with 135 women, Lewin provided her readers with a new understanding of the attitudes of individual women, the choices they made, and the texture of their daily lives.