Growing out of a conversation in 2007, between co-authors who were considering changing definitions of parenthood, Boyd, Chunn, Kelly, and Wiegers explore assumptions about the nature of parenting and family. They interview single moms who often face adverse economic, social, and legal conditions. They emphasize the need for socio-economic and legal change that will support their efforts to care for their children. Chapters are: motherhood, autonomy, choice, and constraint; autonomous mothers and the emergence of unmarried fathers’ rights to access and custody; “A person is the child of his natural parents”: illegitimacy, law reform, and maternal autonomy; custody and access disputes between unmarried, non-cohabiting biological parents, 1945-2009; women’s experiences of autonomous motherhood, 1965-2010: a historical snapshot; autonomous from the start: the narratives of twenty-first-century single mothers by choice; whither autonomous motherhood? Choice and constraint. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)