Description
Book SynopsisJackie Krasas traces the trajectories of mothers who have lost or ceded custody to an ex-partner. She argues that these noncustodial mothers'' experiences should be understood within a greater web of gendered social institutions such as employment, education, health care, and legal systems that shapes the meanings of contemporary motherhood in the United States. If motherhood means being there, then noncustodial mothers, through their absence, are seen as nonmothers. They are anti-mothers to be reviled. At the very least, these mothers serve as cautionary tales.
Still a Mother questions the existence of an objective method for determining custody of children and challenges the best-interests standard through a feminist, reproductive justice lens. The stories of noncustodial mothers that Krasas relates shed light on marriage and divorce, caregiving, gender violence, and family court. Unfortunately, much of the contemporary discussion of child custody determination is dom
Trade Review
This book fits nicely within the feminist literature on mothering and raises significant questions about the gendered demands and distribution of childcare, as well as the criteria and practice of child custody processes.
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Table of Contents1. A Contradiction in Terms
2. The Mothers
3. She Must Have Done Something
4. Still a Mother
5. Father of the Year
6. Manufacturing Bad Mothers
7. Still in an Abusive Relationship
8. Lessons Learned
