Ellen Lewin is a cultural anthropologist who holds a joint appointment in the departments of Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies and Anthropology at The University of Iowa. She is the author of Recognizing Ourselves: Ceremonies of Lesbian and Gay Commitment and Gay Fatherhood: Narratives of Family and Citizenship in America.

Lewin's study of lesbian motherhood, which consisted of interviews of seventy- three lesbian mothers and sixty-two single heterosexual mothers for comparison, confirmed her assumption that the two groups have a great deal in common. It seems that single mothers, whatever their sexuality, tend to relate to their children as partners and count other mothers as better friends than childless people, and that the experience of divorce for heterosexual women often mirrors the experience of coming out for lesbians—both are steps toward autonomy.(Publishers Weekly)

Ellen Lewin is a cultural anthropologist who holds a joint appointment in the departments of Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies and Anthropology at The University of Iowa. She is the author of Recognizing Ourselves: Ceremonies of Lesbian and Gay Commitment and Gay Fatherhood: Narratives of Family and Citizenship in America.

Lewin's study of lesbian motherhood, which consisted of interviews of seventy- three lesbian mothers and sixty-two single heterosexual mothers for comparison, confirmed her assumption that the two groups have a great deal in common. It seems that single mothers, whatever their sexuality, tend to relate to their children as partners and count other mothers as better friends than childless people, and that the experience of divorce for heterosexual women often mirrors the experience of coming out for lesbians—both are steps toward autonomy.(Publishers Weekly)

Ellen Lewin is a cultural anthropologist who holds a joint appointment in the departments of Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies and Anthropology at The University of Iowa. She is the author of Recognizing Ourselves: Ceremonies of Lesbian and Gay Commitment and Gay Fatherhood: Narratives of Family and Citizenship in America.

Lewin's study of lesbian motherhood, which consisted of interviews of seventy- three lesbian mothers and sixty-two single heterosexual mothers for comparison, confirmed her assumption that the two groups have a great deal in common. It seems that single mothers, whatever their sexuality, tend to relate to their children as partners and count other mothers as better friends than childless people, and that the experience of divorce for heterosexual women often mirrors the experience of coming out for lesbians—both are steps toward autonomy.(Publishers Weekly)