Table of Contents

Prologue

1. My Story: Decision-making About Unmarried Motherhood 
2. Unmarried Motherhood: A Half-Century of Change 
3. Having a Baby: Unmarried Adolescent Mothers 
4. Having a Baby: Unmarried Older Mothers 
5. Raising Children: Unmarried Adolescent Mothers 
6. Raising Children: Unmarried Older Mothers 
7. Where's Daddy? Unmarried Adolescent Mothers 
8. Where's Daddy? Unmarried Okler Mothers 
9. Unmarried Mothers: Who We Are and Where We're Headed 

Afterword 
Acknowledgments 
Bibliography 
Index

About the Author

Melissa Ludtke is a journalist. While researching and writing On Our Own she had fellowships at Harvard, Radcliffe, and the Columbia School of Journalism.

Reviews

"Ludtke . . . conducts an illuminating tour of the profound social and moral changes that have occurred over the past generation, as played out in the lives of more than thirty women, including herself. . . . Ludtke's book is a lesson that . . . intensely personal storytelling coupled with solid research can illuminate a topic in ways that more traditional journalism may not."--Dale Mezzacappa, "Boston Globe