Single Mothers by Choice. First Class Citizens and Second Class Mothers?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/ris.2009.06.27Keywords:
Assisted Reproduction, Citizenship, International Adoption, Known Donor, Single MotherhoodAbstract
This article lays out the results of a study of family projects on women who have opted for single motherhood through assisted reproduction, sexual relations and/or international adoption. The course of these speeches is analyzed on a tri-fold approach. First, the speeches show the conflict between these women’s status as full-fledged citizens, which has allowed them to successfully access university education and hold qualified positions, and their status as mothers that is still very much defined by the traditional model of the married, two-parent nuclear family, a model that continues to be the criteria for legitimizing all other family options. Secondly, the narrative strategies these women unfurl to gain social recognition in their respective family, work, friend and legal spheres are examined. Finally, these speeches permit to study the deficient perception of their family unit that many of these women end up assimilating as an unexpected side effect of their situation.
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