The New Uprooted: Single Mothers in Urban Life

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The New Uprooted explores the relationship between the single mother and her social and physical environments. Mulroy examines how demographically diverse single mothers (in terms of race, class, marital status, urban or suburban location, educational level, and employment status) experience dual roles as sole family breadwinner and sole resident parent in the 1990s environment of scarce resources. Families headed by single mothers have become a unit of social concern not only because they represent a changing family form, but because their economic marginality threatens a downward spiral toward the instability of urban poverty. The mothers' key issues are the high cost of housing their families in relation to low wages, irregular or nonpayment of child support, public welfare benefit levels, and the effects of domestic violence. The book is based on multi-method research that includes analyses of the most recent census data relative to the changing composition of families and households, economic trends, and employment; analysis of recent empirical studies on increased neighborhood poverty and urban restructuring; and field research on the coping strategies of 73 single mothers. It will be of interest to public policymakers, scholars, and students of the contemporary American family, housing, and welfare issues.

Reviews

"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."-Rosemary C. Sarri, Professor Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research The University of Michigan
""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.""-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
"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."-Social Work
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.-Choice
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
"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."-Choice

Author Bio

ELIZABETH A. MULROY is Associate Professor at the School of Social Work, University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she teaches social policy analysis and communities and organizations. Among her earlier publications is Women As Single Parents (Auburn House, 1988).