Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-218) and index.
Contents
Foreword / Linda Thompson -- Complexity and Opportunity -- Beginning -- Theoretical Perspectives -- Method: The Complex Relationship of Researcher to Researched -- Study Design -- The Participant Families -- Data Analysis -- Validity -- Ethical Considerations -- Back to the Beginning -- The Family Gestalt -- Description of the Participant Families -- The Norden/Westby/Engleking Family -- The Iliff/Dubrovsky/Iliff-Hernandez Family -- The Uphoff/Dillard Family -- The Peterson/Timms/Taylor Family -- The Stark Family -- We are (Normal) Family -- Discipline Disagreements -- The Other Parent -- The Children as Active Agents in Family Creation -- The Impact of Herstory--Families of Origin -- Job Stress -- The Lesbian Couple as Heads of Household: Attempting Matriarchy in the Shadow of Patriarchy -- Female Coupling -- Household Tasks Degendered -- Mothering and Fathering Degendered -- We Can Father but We Can Never Be Male -- Outside/Insight: Creating the Step Mother Role and Redefining the Mother Role -- Commitment of Step Mother to Child -- The Nature versus Nurture Debate -- Step Parents Develop Unique Relationships with the Children -- Defining the Step Parent Role: Three Stances -- Forging Families in a Heterosexual Supremacist Environment -- Children -- Parenting in the Mouth of a Dragon -- It Takes a Whole Village -- Free to Be You and Me -- Modeling Gender Flexibility -- Shared Parenting -- The Impact of Heterosexual Supremacy -- Theoretical Implications -- Implications for Research and Policy -- First Interview--Couple.