Subject: Study: Lesbian Mothers
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 11:45:07 EST

This is a message from Dr. Gill Dunne who published a recent study that
concludes that lesbian mothers are providing positive role models for
parenting.  Dr. Dunne is from the London School of Economics, Gender
Institute.  References and contact information are provided at the end of the
message.  --  Kathy Hogan 
______________________________________________________________________
"Hi everyone!

           I have been caught up in the whirl of publicity/enquiries following
the reporting of my study on the allocation of work and parenting in lesbian
partnerships, and felt I should thank everyone who has supported me and shown
an interest in finding out more.  I would like to pass on some references to
publications from the research for your own interest and evaluation.

      I feel wonderfully linked up with our global community following the
recent front page treatment of my research findings in The Sunday Express
(popular tabloid known for its right wing opinion rather than radicalism) on
14th February - see especially  their opinion section.  There is a feeling
that we have made a break through regarding the representation of lesbian
motherhood - see Lisa Saffrons article in Diva (April) - by suggesting that
heterosexual parents, and society at large, has much to learn from lesbian/gay
creativity and the emphasis on egalitarianism. My
work contributes to wider feminist debates by providing some evidence to
counter both the fairness and efficiency of traditional gender divisions of
labour, by showing that sharing domestic and employment demands enables more
time to devote to the pleasures and labour of childcare.  

	Below is the Independent's treatment of the findings - and of course I would
never say lesbians make better parents, because parenting is a struggle and
the most we can hope to be is good enough.  Nonetheless, my message is that
there is much to learn from lesbian and gay people.  

          While much of this represents common sense to lesbians, my hope is
to play some role in bringing important work on sexuality from the margins to
the centre of feminist enquiry by illustrating the relationship between
sexuality and gender -thus arguing that lesbian experience as women helps
illuminate sources of constraint and empowerment with respect to gender
relations.  In other words, I opperationalize the idea that institutional
heterosexuality contributes to the reproduction of inequality, ideologically
and materially.

          Given this recent enthusiasm for knowing more about the research I
have taken the liberty of jotting down some references to published work (at
the end of this message).  Please feel free to contact me for copies of the
report and forthcoming articles: [email-masked].   Again thanks for
being there -  gill "  (Dr. Gill Dunne)

 [Text of article printed in the Independent, about Dr. Dunne's research on
lesbian parents]:

The Independent (London)
Mon, 15 Feb

Article:  "Lesbians 'are better parents' "

            LESBIAN COUPLES are better at sharing the household chores than
traditional parents, leaving both partners more time to spend with the
children, says new research.   A comparison of heterosexual and lesbian
parents by Gill Dunne, a Cambridge University researcher, found conventional
parents had much to learn from two-mother families.  

            In lesbian families, both the mother and the co-parent tended to
regard parenthood as a combination of mothering and breadwinning.  Whereas
ideologies of motherhood and fatherhood polarised responsibilities for
children among heterosexual couples, single-sex households were able to
negotiate more balanced lifestyles.

             We have a situation where, in many families, the father is
designated the breadwinner and the mother takes on responsibility for looking
after the household," said Dr Dunne.  "We found lesbian couples split their
time at work so effectively they bring in.half an income each. This allows
them to devote more time to the children than the conventional model. This is
something that parents can learn a lot from.

              "There is nothing to say that one parent has to be a
breadwinner. It ends up with a father or mother spending so much time at work
that they never see their children."  Most of the 43 couples studied had young
children, paid employment and were educated to degree level. The research was
funded by a u150,000 grant from the Economic and Social Research Council.  

              Dr. Dunne, a widow now based at the London School of Economics,
said lesbians made good parents.  "Their children are enormously wanted, very
loved and born into an environment where both parents have been brought up to
provide a stable household."

[Note: End of article, continuing with message by Dr. Dunne:--  KH]

THE LESBIAN HOUSEHOLD PROJECT -

       The Lesbian Household Project is a recently `completed'  Economic and
Social Research Council-funded project on divisions of paid and un-paid labour
in lesbian partnerships.  The study was carried out over four years, and
employed a wide range of methods (including time-use diaries, innovative
participatory techniques and in-depth interviews) to investigate the
allocation of work and parenting responsibilities in 44 cohabiting lesbian
partnerships.  

           The majority of households had dependent children, most of whom
were conceived via donor insemination.  This proved to be a very enjoyable and
affirming project.  The findings are interesting and have radical implications
for mainstream understandings of  gender, work and work and family-life.  A
key insight being the creativity and possibilities for more egalitarian
arrangements experienced by women organizing their lives beyond the
constraints of heterosexuality.  

	The project built upon  theoretical and empirical insights gained in an
earlier life- history study which drew on the experiences of growing up,
education, work and relationships of 60 non- heterosexual  women.

Lesbian Lifestyles: Women's Work and the Politics of Sexuality.   

           Starting with the assumption that sexuality is socially constructed
and that
heterosexuality is a compulsory  institution which plays a central role in
reproducing
gender inequalities,  the research asked how and with what consequences do
women come to question the taken-for-grantedness of heterosexuality?  

	      This research explores and highlights links between empowerment and the
capacity to evaluate and move beyond the confines of heterosexuality.  It
illuminates a material dimension to sexuality.  As most women do not learn to
a living wage, the capacity to live independently of men needs to be
recognized as an economic achievement   - a lesbian lifestyle tends to both
necessitate and facilitate financial self reliance.  A key insight is ways
that sexuality and gender overlap to shape women's experience, skill
development and employment opportunities.

Publications from the Lesbian Household Project include:

`Pioneers Behind Our Own Front Doors: New Models for the Organization of
Work in Partnerships' Work Employment and Society Vol 12, No 2 (June, 1998).

`A Passion for `Sameness': Sexuality and Gender Accountability' in E.
Silva and C. Smart (eds)  The `New' Family? London: Sage. 1998

`Add Sexuality and Stir: Towards a broader understanding of the gender
dynamics of work and family life' in G. A. Dunne (ed) Work and Family Life:
special edition of the Journal of Lesbian Studies volume 2 Number 4 (October
1998).

With Andrea Doucet  `Who Essentially Cares? Towards a Reformulation of the
Gender Dynamics of Care Giving,' with Andrea Doucet,  in Andrea O'Reilly and
Sharon Abbey (eds) International Perspectives on Mothers and Daughters.
Toronto: Rowman and Littlefield. (In press: June, 1999).

`Opting into Motherhood: Lesbians blurring the boundaries and re-defining the
meaning of parenting'  Gender and Society (fall 1999).

`What Difference Does Difference Make? Lesbian experience of Work and Family
Life'  in J. Seymour and P. Bagguley (eds) Relating Intimacies: Power and
Resistance.MacMillan and BSA. (In press: Spring 1999).

`Balancing Acts: On the Salience of Sexuality and Sexual Identity for
Understanding the Gendering of Work and Family-Life Opportunities' in L.
Sperling and M. Owen (eds) Women and Work: The Age of Post-Feminism?
Aldershot: Ashgate
(forthcoming).

       I have recently moved from the Faculty of Social and Political
Sciences, at Cambridge University,  to the more supportive environment of The
LSE Gender Institute:

Dr. Gill Dunne
LSE Gender Institute
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
0171 955 7305

Best telephone contact:.
Home office 01223 294733
email [email-masked]

[End of transmission.  --  KH]