Doing It All by Ruby Russell

Doing It All explores what it means to be a single mother. Scorned as victims, outcasts and sinners, the very existence of lone mothers has long been a ‘problem’ that skewers the heart of prevailing systems of morality, oppression and power. This book combines personal essay with interviews and historical research to reveal the shrouded history and present-day struggles of women who raise their children outside marriage, on the fringes of society, and in communities that challenge the very definition of family. It looks to traditions of female solidarity around the world, and to the few explicitly political movements of single mothers in Western history-most significantly the Sisterhood of Black Single Mothers that arose in the US in the early 1970s.

There has been a wave of wonderfully radical examinations of motherhood in recent years. But no one has deeply examined the specific questions and communal histories of single motherhood. Like queer relationships, single motherhood has always been an anathema to patriarchy. Now, a long history of the mother as a mere channel through which a man’s progeny is birthed and nurtured into an heir is waning. We no longer need to relinquish our independence or sexual selves to a man to legitimise our children. Yet for all the feminist arguments made against marriage half a century ago and more, women who choose to be mothers still aren’t offered much else.

Single mothers have always been a thorn in society’s side, revealing its structural and ideological shortcomings. The welfare state’s earliest incarnation was public assistance for lone mothers, breaking the ground for others to receive social support. Unpacking the hardships single mothers face today, Russell argue that the transformation that society must undergo to accommodate our ways of life are essential to make homes and workplaces fit for all women, and to create a more just and sustainable society.

Doing It All is a call for single mothers to take pride in their identity, and for society to recognise their value and respect the decisions single mothers make over how to raise our children.

About the Author: Ruby Russell is a journalist, writer, editor, and single mum from London. Russell started out publishing books of photojournalism with award-winning publisher Trolley. Frustrated with the mediation of stories of injustice through the reporter’s lens, she then worked on participatory projects that helped marginalised groups-from British teenage single mothers and adults with mental health challenges, to young women born and raised in refugee camps in North Africa-to tell their own stories and advocate for visibility. She has written for The Telegraph, Teller, The Guardian, and now works as a part-time environment editor at German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

29 Feb 2024
 

Doing It All by Ruby Russell ISBN 9780349702179