Promises I Can Keep
内容简介
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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作者简介
Kathryn Edin is Associate Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and coauthor of Making Ends Meet (1997). Maria Kefalas is Professor of Sociology at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. She is the author of Working-Class Heroes (California, 2003).
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目录
Preface to the 2011 Edition
Introduction
1. “Before We Had a Baby . . .”
2. “When I Got Pregnant . . .”
3. How Does the Dream Die?
4. What Marriage Means
5. Labor of Love
6. How Motherhood Changed My Life
Conclusion: Making Sense of Single Motherhood
Acknowledgements
Appendix A: City, Neighborhood, and Family Characteristics and Research Methods
Appendix B: Interview Guide
Notes
References
Index
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读书文摘
《成为母亲的承诺》记录了162位低收入女性在21世纪之交的生活。这些所谓单身妈妈在正式结婚之前都有过孩子。当我们在20世纪90年代第一次见到她们时，美国三分之一的新生儿都来自未婚女性。十多年后的今天，这一比例超过了四成。 贫困未婚情侣如何走到一起，进而孕育出一个孩子，继而又分手的故事，就是我们在本书中要讲述的内容。
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