Autonomous Motherhood?: A Socio-Legal Study of Choice and Constraint

‘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

“Written by leading socio-legal scholars, Autonomous Motherhood? is an important work that will also be of interest to scholars in sociology, anthropology, politics, and public policy whose focus is families and family life.”

Mary Jane Mossman, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

“Enriched by its mixed methods, this book invites us to understand a range of family situations as examples of autonomous motherhood. It presses us to think harder about autonomy, the neoliberal context in which family making unfolds today, and the judgments we assign to different kinship forms.”

Robert Leckey, Faculty of Law, McGill University

“Autonomous Motherhood? offers a nuanced understanding of the trickiness of conceptions of autonomy and choice and provides important new data on women’s experiences of lone motherhood in the post-war and more recent era.”

Hester Lessard, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria