Women and Stepfamilies: Voices of Anger and Love

Author note: Nan Bauer Maglin is Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. >P>Nancy Schniedewind is Professor of Educational Studies at the State University of New York, New Paltz.

Nan Bauer Maglin is Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York.

IntroductionPart I: PerspectivesStepmothers:1. Letters from a Custodial Stepmother - Christine Bryson2. Ten Times Harder: Becoming a Stepmother - Suzanne L. Bunkers3. My Extended Family - Andrea Starr Alonzo4. Stepmother - Carol Ascher5. Benjamin - Deborah Rosenfelt6. Parenting on the Edge - Sophia Carestia7. The Barbie Doll Fight - Gale McGovern8. Second Wife: Eleven Poems - Helane Levine-Keating9. One Step Away from Mother: A Stepmother's Story - Alice Neufeld10. The Envious Heart - Helane Levine-KeatingMothers:11. Only My Favorite Mommy - Sheila Alson12 . A Rainbow Family in the Deep South - Yandra Soliz13. The Step-Wedding - Wilma Wolfenstein14. Daisy Chain - Morgan DavidStepdaughters:15. Lizzie's Axe - Helane Levine-Keating16. Mementos - Kathy Chamberlain17. Stealing Clothes from My Stepmother - Alison Townsend18. The Woman and Her Past - Ines Rodriguez19. "Whose Side Are You on Anyway?" A Stepdaughter Ponders the Unanswerable - reminiscences by O.C., edited by Yvonne Stam20. The Mother Who Is Not the Mother But Is - Alison Townsend21. Name and Shelter Made Me Homeless: Notes from an Interview with a Latina Stepdaughter - Elisa Davila22. When East Meets West: Second Mothers and Abandoned Daughters - Shirley Geok-Lin Lim23. What Really is a "Normal" Family? - Erin Marie HettingaStepgrandmothers:24. I'm My Own Stepgrandma - Juanita R. Howard25. From Dutiful Daughter to Stepgrandmother - Judith Hocking HioosPart II: Stepping Out26. Choosing Consciousness - Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich27. Cross-Sex Stepparenting: A Personal Essay - Kathleen Dunn28. The New Family and the Old Ideology - Judith Grant29. The Strengths of African-American Stepfamilies - Margaret Wade-Lewis30. Grown-up Steps: Reflections on Two Generations of Stepmothers and Their Adult Stepdaughters - Hedva Lewittes31. Working-Class Mothering and the Problem of Weaning - Dympna C. Callaghan32. Reading Stepfamily Fiction - Nan Bauer MaglinPart III . Transforming-Both Within and Without33. Lesbian Stepfamilies and the Myth of Biological Motherhood - Connie Miller34. Less Than a Mother-More than a Friend - Barbara Drucker35. Step-by-Step Parenting - Dee, Wendy, and Viivi-Ann Shirley36. My Wife-in-Law and Me: Reflections on a Joint-Custody Stepparenting Relationship - Sarah Turner37. There for Each Other: A Stepmothers' Support Group - Nancy Schniedewind38. The Company of Children - Catharine R. Stimpson