The 21st century sustains one significant commonality with the decades of the preceding century. The majority of individuals parenting on their own and heading one-parent families continue to be mothers. Even so, current trends in globalization (economic, political, cultural) along with technological advancement, shifts in political, economic and social policy, contemporary demographic shifts, changing trends in the labor sector linked to global economics, and developments in legislative and judicial output, all signify the distinctiveness of the current moment with regard to family patterns and social norms. Seeking to contribute to an existing body of literature focused on single motherhood and lone parenting in the 20th century, this collection explores and illuminates a more recent landscape of 21st century debates, policies and experiences surrounding single motherhood and one-parent headed families.

Maki Motapanyane is an Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies in the Department of Humanities at Mount Royal University. Her teaching is rooted in liberatory pedagogy, focused in courses on colonialism and de-colonization, global gender issues and transnationalism, environmental justice/liberation ecology, and Hip-Hop culture. Her research spans the fields of feminist theory, motherhood and cultural studies, with academic publications featuring a range of inter-related thematic interests including feminist theory, transnational feminist research methods, mothering and motherhood, racialized comedy in Canada, and gender in Hip-Hop culture. She is the editor of Mothering in Hip-Hop Culture: Representation and Experience (Demeter Press, 2012), and co-editor (with Roksana Badruddoja) of “New Maternalisms”: Tales of Motherwork (Dislodging the Unthinkable) (Demeter Press, 2016).

Maki Motapanyane's profile page