Reviews
“An important and much needed contribution to family studies and gay and lesbian studies.”—American Journal of Sociology
"Maureen Sullivan has set a new standard not only for students of gay and lesbian life in America and for followers of the "family values" debates that have become increasingly bitter in recent years, but for ethnographic research more broadly defined. The Family of Woman rarely falters in its emphasis on paying close attention to the voices of its narrators. The author is refreshingly free of ideological agendas and the reader feels neither manipulated nor left adrift. Her work is fully grounded in the scholarship of others across the disciplines but not slavishly devoted to any particular line of inquiry."—Theory and Society
“A major contribution to earlier challengers of the so-called family normative.”—Multicultural Review
"By providing a very good insight into the lives and struggles of lesbian mothers and their children, Sullivan helps to fill the gap in the literature dealing with gay and lesbian families."—Journal of Marriage and Family
"As lesbian mothers boldly go where no family has gone before, Maureen Sullivan bears witness to their courageous ingenuity and achievements. Providing the most illuminating, theoretically sophisticated account to date of how the lesbian co-parented family is quietly shattering the existing gender order, this book expertly weaves captivating ethnographic family portraits into the broader social and political tapestry of our fiercely fought contemporary family revolution. Scholarly, provocative, witty, and deeply humane,
The Family of Woman is that precious rarity—a genuinely original, profound scholarly work that is a joy to read."—Judith Stacey, author of
In the Name of the Family
"Sullivan makes a compelling argument that lesbian families challenge, at root, the very basis of patriarchal familial norms, and indeed modern notions of biological fixity. A provocative, fascinating study."—Arlene Stein, author of Sex and Sensibility: Stories of a Lesbian Generation
"A notable document of the quiet social revolution that is producing new forms of the family. Maureen Sullivan tells the stories of the lesbian women who have created coparenting families, and have made them viable, often in the face of prejudice. Her research is carefully reasoned and insightful. The implications for our understanding of families, gender equality, and child development are immense."—R.W. Connell, author of Gender and Power
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