A remarkable number of women today are taking the daunting step of having children outside of marriage. This book offers a full-scale account of this fast-growing phenomenon, revealing why these middle class women are taking this unorthodox path and how they have managed to make single parenthood work for them. Sixty-five women were interviewed—ranging from physicians and financial analysts to social workers, teachers, and secretaries—who speak candidly about how they manage their lives and families as single mothers. What the research discovers are not ideologues but reluctant revolutionaries, women who—whether straight or gay—struggle to conform to the conventional definitions of mother, child, and family. Having tossed out the rulebook in order to become mothers, they nonetheless adhere to time-honored rules about child-rearing. As they tell their stories, they shed light on their paths to motherhood, describing how they summoned up the courage to pursue their dream, how they broke the news to parents, siblings, friends, and co-workers, how they went about buying sperm from fertility banks or adopting children of different races. They recount how their personal and social histories intersected to enable them to pursue their dream of motherhood, and how they navigate daily life. What does it mean to be “single” in terms of romance and parenting? How do women juggle earning a living with parenting? What creative ways have women devised to shore up these families? How do they incorporate men into their child-centered families? This book provides concrete, informative answers to all these questions.