The family lives of lesbian mothers

Abstract

Forty-five lesbians who are also parents provided information on their families of creation via a researcher-designed questionnaire. The purpose of the study was to gather descriptive data about the family lives of the women, using an ecological perspective for interpretation of results. The major findings revealed that the women were cognizant of the impact of their sexual orientation on their children, that they were vigilant about maintaining the integrity of their families, and that the stress they felt was buffered by social support networks.

Celebrating the “Other” Parent: Mental Health and Wellness of Expecting Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Non-Birth Parents

“…Since the expecting but nonbirth parent in this context is often not a biological parent, they are sometimes perceived and treated as though they are not the "real" parent by their families, friends, co-workers, service providers, and so forth (Crawford, 1987;Rohrbaugh, 1989;Stiglitz, 1990;Raphael-Leff, 1991;Lott-Whitehead & Tully, 1993;Laird, 1994;Muzio, 1993Muzio, , 1995Mitchell, 1995;Patterson, 1995;Dalton & Bielby, 2000;Wilson, 2000). Participants in this study described a range of situations wherein they did not feel as though I'm sure all of that stuff will come flooding back when I get the questions like "who's the real mom?"…”

Lesbian Parents and Work

“…The focus on integration of work and family can be seen as evidence of lesbian parents' commitment to maintaining the integrity of their families (Lott-Whitehead & Tully, 1993). Comments about the value placed on the inclusion of partners and children in work-related social events support this interpretation, as do data on the negative impact of inflexibility in workers' schedules.…”

Lesbian families and family functioning: an overview

“…However, there have been conflicting findings on this matter. For example, it was found that families of origin are relied on more for support than lesbian networks are [38,39], and many lesbian parents were disillusioned by the lack of support from and acceptance by lesbian social networks [40].…”