by Gillian A. Dunne
page 1-8
by Pam Alldred
page 9-21
In Britain, the legal treatment of lesbian mothers and co-parents has improved considerably over the past 15 years (Harne et al., 1997). Despite this, they are still vilified in occasional outbursts in the popular press. This article identifies arguments against lesbian parenting employed in a recent front-page 'fury' article in a British daily tabloid newspaper, The Sun. Encouragingly, of the five arguments about the 'dangers' of lesbian parenting that can be identified in earlier legal battles (such as the 'risk' that children grow up gay, or become 'gender confused'), the only one which this article manages to present very convincingly is that of social stigma. Concern that the children of lesbians may experience name-calling or exclusion is, of course, a problem of discrimination and not a problem that is intrinsic to lesbian parenting (in contrast, say, to an argument about 'the psychology of lesbianism'). The rhetorical force of the piece comes from easily deconstructed journalistic techniques rather than coherent arguments. The sharpest condemnation of these women is actually for having a child whilst on welfare benefits. It is, therefore, economic concerns about 'state dependency,' rather than sexuality per se, which fuel the attack. The imagined financial self-sufficiency of heterosexual families which underpins this argument is outdated in its presumption of a bread-winning, male head of household. The fact that two days before the UK's 1997 General Election, the birth of a baby to a lesbian couple was granted front-page coverage is a sobering reminder of the hostility that lesbians still face through the scrutiny of their 'fitness to parent' and the intrusive condemnation of non-heterosexual domestic arrangements and relationships.
by Kate Griffin
page 23-34
This article looks at two major issues faced by lesbian mothers in Europe: getting kids and keeping them. The first part focuses on the ways lesbians have children, and in particular the different levels of access to formal insemination services for lesbians in European countries. The second part examines custody issues faced by lesbians with children from previous heterosexual relationships, and those faced by lesbians who have children within a lesbian relationship; and legal recognition of the bond between non-biological parents and their children. The article is based on original research and interviews carried out by the author for the book Lesbian Motherhood in Europe.
by Lisa Saffron
page 35-47
Research into the influence of parental lesbianism on child development has not revealed any meaningful or significant differences between the children of lesbian and heterosexual parents. While such research helps to disprove negative assumptions about lesbian mothers, the focus has been on the potential problems and disadvantages of this difference from the norm. In interviews with 17 British teenagers and adults who have lesbian mothers, respondents suggested distinct advantages for themselves which they attributed to their mother's sexuality. They spoke of the influence their mothers had on their moral development, particularly on their awareness of prejudice and their acceptance of diversity and of homosexuality. They felt they had benefited from the insights they gained into gender relations and from the broader, more inclusive definition of family they acquired through growing up in a different kind of family.
by Fiona Tasker and Susan Golombok
page 49-68
The present study examined the role of co-parents in children's lives by comparing the role of co-mothers in 15 British lesbian mother families with the role of resident fathers in two different groups of heterosexual families (43 families where the study-child was conceived through donor insemination, and 41 families where the child had been naturally conceived). Birth mothers in all three types of family were administered a semi-structured interview to assess the quality of family relationships. Questionnaire data on stress associated with parenting were obtained from co-mothers and fathers, and the children were administered the Family Relations Test. The results indicated that co-mothers played a more active role in daily caretaking than did most fathers. However, father-child and co-mother-child relationships were found to be equally warm and affectionate in all three groups and no group differences were found for children's scores on the Family Relations Test or co-mothers/fathers' scores on the Parenting Stress Index.
by Sarah Oerton
page 69-83
This article addresses the contention that some research on household work in non-heterosexual households has been characterized by a tendency to 'empty' such households of any processes and practices associated with gendering. As a result, lesbians, particularly in co-residing, couple households, have been seen as having more egalitarian, democratic divisions of household labour. This article takes issue with such analyses and argues for the central importance of gender in constituting the organization of work in and between lesbians' households and kin networks. In particular, it addresses the contention that although gender difference may be less obvious in lesbian household arrangements, the issue of who gender is done for assumes key importance. The ways in which lesbians may or may not be constituted as 'housewives' are then unpacked and evaluated in terms of women's relationships to 'family' and in terms of 'housewife' as task-doer. Finally, a plea for the reclamation of the 'housewife,' and the associated need to place gender center-stage, is made evident.
by Gill Clarke
page 85-99
This paper explores the significance of space(s) for the construction and contestation of lesbian teachers' sexual identities. In so doing it reveals how spaces are not neutral, but are shot through with power, such that some locations, be they public or private, become hostile places for lesbians. Nevertheless, queer activists have begun to reclaim the largely heterosexual landscape and to extend the boundaries of sexual citizenship. Schools in England however remain largely sites of compulsory heterosexuality, where few have dared to cross the (sexual) boundaries. Finally, attention is also directed to the city and to the home as sites of resistance and places for possible border crossings.
page 101-132
Transcribed by Emma McCulloch
5 November 1998