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Autonomous Motherhood?

Autonomous Motherhood?

A Socio-Legal Study of Choice and Constraint

by Susan B. Boyd, Dorothy E. Chunn, Fiona Kelly and Wanda Wiegers

Published by: University of Toronto Press

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

3 b&w tables

Digital download
9781442619098
Published: April 2015

Digital download
9781442619104
Published: May 2015

Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

Since the end of the Second World War, increasing numbers of women have decided to become mothers without intending the biological father or a partner to participate in parenting. Many conceive via donor insemination or adopt; others become pregnant after a brief sexual relationship and decide to parent alone.

Using a feminist socio-legal framework, Autonomous Motherhood? probes fundamental assumptions within the law about the nature of family and parenting. Drawing on a range of empirical evidence, including legislative history, case studies, and interviews with single mothers, the authors conclude that while women may now have the economic and social freedom to parent alone, they must still negotiate a socio-legal framework that suggests their choice goes against the interests of society, fatherhood, and children.

1. Motherhood, Autonomy, Choice, and Constraint

2. Autonomous Mothers and the Emergence of Unmarried Fathers’ Rights to Access and Custody

3. “A Person is the Child of his Natural Parents”: Illegitimacy, Law Reform, and Maternal Autonomy

4. Custody and Access Disputes between Unmarried, Non-Cohabiting Biological Parents 1945–2009

5. Women’s Experiences Of Autonomous Motherhood, 1965–2010: An Historical Snapshot

6. Autonomous from the Start: The Narratives of Single Mothers by Choice

7. Whither Autonomous Motherhood? Choice and Constraint

Susan B. Boyd is a professor and holds the Chair in Feminist Legal Studies in the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia.

Wanda Wiegers is a professor in the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan.

‘Autonomous Motherhood is a wonderful and welcome contribution to feminist socio-legal literature….It raises provocative, timely, and important questions, and will provide the basis for future scholarship on single motherhood, relational autonomy, and legal regulation.’
~Brenda Cossman, Canadian Journal of Family Law vol 30:01:2017

‘Through a refined investigation showing sociological, legal, and historical depth, the authors offer many insightful answers to the problem of social reproduction which continues to be framed in terms of private and personal matters…This book offers an innovative study of an over-neglected topic.’
~Emmanaulle Turcotte, Canadian Journal of Family and Youth vol 9:01:2017