Millie Acevedo bore her first child before the age of 16 and dropped out of high school to care for her newborn. Now 27, she is the unmarried mother of three and is raising her kids in one of Philadelphia's poorest neighborhoods. Would she and her children be better off if she had waited to have them and had married their father first? Why do so many poor American youth like Millie continue to have children before they can afford to take care of them? Over a span of five years, sociologists Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas talked in-depth with 162 low-income single moms like Millie to learn how they think about marriage and family. Promises I Can Keep offers an intimate look at what marriage and motherhood mean to these women and provides the most extensive on-the-ground study to date of why they put children before marriage despite the daunting challenges they know lie ahead.

Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage

Maria J. Kefalas

Kathryn J.Edin

University of California Press

In 2001, with funding from the MacArthur Foundation, sociologists Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas moved to Iowa to understand the rural brain drain and the exodus of young people from America’s countryside. They met and followed working-class ";stayers";; ambitious and college-bound ";achievers";; ";seekers,"; who head off to war to see what the world beyond offers; and ";returners,"; who eventually circle back to their hometowns. What surprised them most was that adults in the community were playing a pivotal part in the town’s decline by pushing the best and brightest young people to leave.In a timely, new afterword, Carr and Kefalas address the question ";so what can be done to save our communities?"; They profile the efforts of dedicated community leaders actively resisting the hollowing out of Middle America. These individuals have creatively engaged small town youthstayers and returners, seekers and

Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America

Patrick J. Carr

History

Beacon Press

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Books by Maria J. Kefalas