An anthropological approach to voluntarily single motherhood in Barcelona [Full text]
Oscar Jordana-Pröpper [1]
| Abstract: This article is based on the research I did for my doctoral thesis about voluntarily single motherhood in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). It is an anthropological approach to the appearance and the development of voluntarily single motherhood, which is when a woman becomes a mother through adoption or conception previously planned without partner. Within a framework of study carried out from October 2001 to October 2007 in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, my research is based on in-depth interviews with twelve women from April 2002 to April 2006. The aim of the paper is to understand why women in Barcelona choose to be voluntarily single mothers. The purpose is to point out that the voluntarily single motherhood is a new way of understanding between women and men, resulting from the progressive changes in their respective gender roles. This anthropological research is grounded in a full vital process: from the personal decision of the women to become single mothers to the daily interaction with their children. Keywords: Motherhood, kinship, gender, conception, adoption |
[1] University of Barcelona, Spain, oscarjordana@yahoo.es