Promises I Can Keep
eBook - PDF

Promises I Can Keep

Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage

  1. 308 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Promises I Can Keep

Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage

About this book

Millie Acevedo bore her first child before the age of 16 and dropped out of high school to care for her newborn. Now 27, she is the unmarried mother of three and is raising her kids in one of Philadelphia's poorest neighborhoods. Would she and her children be better off if she had waited to have them and had married their father first? Why do so many poor American youth like Millie continue to have children before they can afford to take care of them?

Over a span of five years, sociologists Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas talked in-depth with 162 low-income single moms like Millie to learn how they think about marriage and family. Promises I Can Keep offers an intimate look at what marriage and motherhood mean to these women and provides the most extensive on-the-ground study to date of why they put children before marriage despite the daunting challenges they know lie ahead.

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Yes, you can access Promises I Can Keep by Kathryn Edin,Maria Kefalas in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Discrimination & Race Relations. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
xii 
PREFACE 
TO 
THE 
2011 
EDITION
2
.
This 
figure 
excludes 
mothers 
living 
solo 
but 
with 
children 
from 
multiple 
partners—such 
mothers 
are 
included 
in 
the 
78
percent 
who 
experience 
either 
instability 
or 
complexity.
3
.
This 
figure 
doesn’t 
include 
discouraged 
workers.
4
.
The 
figure 
for 
white 
college 
graduates 
was 
just 
2
percent, 
both 
then 
and 
now. 
Bradford 
Wilcox, 
2010
,
When 
Marriage 
Disappears: 
The 
New 
Middle 
America. 
University 
of 
Virginia: 
Institute 
for 
American 
Values, 
National 
Marriage 
Project.
5
.
See 
McLanahan 
(
2011
); 
Kiernan 
et 
al. 
(
2011
).

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Preface to the 2011 Edition
  4. Introduction
  5. I. "Before We Had a Baby..."
  6. 2. "When I Got Pregnant..."
  7. 3. How Does the Dream Die?
  8. 4. What Marriage Means
  9. 5. Labor of Love
  10. 6. How Motherhood Changed My Life
  11. Conclusion: Making Sense of Single Motherhood
  12. Acknowledgments
  13. APPENDIX A: City, Neighborhood, and Family Characteristics and Research Methods
  14. APPENDIX B: Interview Guide
  15. Notes
  16. References
  17. Index