Inequality and the American Family featuring Professor Kathryn Edin

Abstract: Across the political spectrum, unwed fatherhood is denounced as one of the leading social problems of today. Doing the Best I Can, which I wrote with Timothy Nelson, is an up close look at fatherhood among inner-city men often dismissed as "deadbeat dads". Nelson and I examine how couples in challenging straits come together and get pregnant so quickly — without planning. We chronicle the high hopes for forging lasting family bonds that pregnancy inspires, and pinpoint the fatal flaws that often lead to the relationship’s demise. Doing the Best I Can shows how mammoth economic and cultural changes have transformed the meaning of family and fatherhood among the urban poor. Our in-depth interviews make real the significant obstacles faced by low-income men at every step in the familial process: from the difficulties of romantic relationships, to decision-making dilemmas at conception, to the often celebratory moment of birth, and finally to the hardships that accompany the early years of the child's life, and beyond. The book reveals a radical redefinition of family life among low-income men, where the father-child bond is seen as central while the father-mother bond is deemed peripheral, plus a revolution in the meaning of fatherhood, where the relational aspects of the role are elevated almost to the exclusion of its more traditional aspects (financial provision, serving as a role model). Because this redefinition often flies in the face of mothers’ and society’s expectations, disengagement is common despite desires to stay involved. As a result, most low-income men end up satisfying their father thirst through serial, selective fathering, a potential explanation for growing rates of "multi-partner fertility", the new term used by demographers to describe the fact that many poor children born to the same mother have different fathers.