The New Uprooted Single Mothers in Urban Life

Subjects:

• Sociology » Urban Studies
• Political Science » Public Policy

Reviews:

• In this book, Mulroy contributes greatly to the understanding of the experiences of single mothers, particularly those living in urban areas, and provides the reader with a wealth of demographic and statistical data. Highly recommended for policy makers, scholars, students of public policy, and the informed general public.
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  Choice
• "The personal stories of the women are a strength of this book. Through their experiences the reader sees how the struggle to obtain stable housing is a major issue for many of them and how this affects all other aspects of their lives....[this book] provides a vivid picture of the struggle to meet basic needs facing single-mother families at all income levels. The author also presents a range of policy options and actions that can assist single mothers as they attempt to provide stable homes for their children. It is a very readable book that would be useful for policymakers and for instructors who might use it as a supplemental text for a beginning social policy course."
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  Social Work
• Mulroy's exhaustive analysis of the U.S. housing crisis and its intricate relation to the quality of life for single mothers and their children is excellent and undoubtedly the greatest contribution of this book....[W]ould make an excellent contribution to courses on gender, the family, or social welfare and would also be useful for those interested in developing social and family policies.
  —Signs

• Endorsement From Rosemary C. Sarri, Professor
  Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research
  The University of Michigan: Mulroy provides a new perspective on a major social issue of the 1990s, single mothers and their families. She points to the major social changes in the social and physical environment that together have had a significant impact on family structure in the past two decades....Implementation of her recommendations would provide a strong counter to the present drift toward crime, violence, substance abuse, and unemployment that are destroying the family, especially in urban communities. Mulroy's emphasis on the importance of understanding and meeting basic needs is critical today when so little attention is being directed to this issue. She provides a conceptual framework that will be useful for both practitioners and researchers. Likewise, her presentation of a number of case studies provides vivid pictures about what life is really like for a major segment of single mother families.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Background
• Introduction
• Thirty Years of Family and Workplace Change
• Families and the Affordable Housing Crisis
• Meeting Basic Needs
• Lost Dreams: Domestic Violence and Relationship Breakdown
• The High Cost of Working
• Teen Mothers in Urban Poverty
• The New Uprooted: Housing and Divorce
• Transition and Stabilization
• Family Restructuring after Separation and Divorce
• Family Futures in a Caring Society
• Bibliography
• Index