Single Mothers, Patriarchy and Citizenship in India Quotes

“When the religious tenets preach about the dependence of women on men as fathers, husbands, and sons for protection, single mothers are shattering this orthodox notion by being the wage-earners, breadwinners, and providers for their families, besides also taking up the caring and nurturing role.”
― Shalu Nigam, Single Mothers, Patriarchy and Citizenship in India: Rethinking Lone Motherhood through the Lens of Socio-legal and Policy Framework

“Despite all odds, the practice of single mothering signifies a political act of resistance against patriarchy and intersecting inequalities. Being on the margins, oppressed, and excluded by society, single mothers, through their active and empowered mothering, are contesting the marginalities and questioning the domination.”
― Shalu Nigam, Single Mothers, Patriarchy and Citizenship in India: Rethinking Lone Motherhood through the Lens of Socio-legal and Policy Framework

“The state and society generally construe single parenthood as an outcome of the breakdown of the traditional heterosexual family; however, what is overlooked in this construction is that diverse situations exist where women as single mothers are encountering different challenges. Also, what is negated is the fact that in modern society, the family structure is altering. In this fast-changing scenario, single motherhood is taking on multiple forms, whereas the laws and policies have failed to keep pace with the shift in the forms of motherhood.”
― Shalu Nigam, Single Mothers, Patriarchy and Citizenship in India: Rethinking Lone Motherhood through the Lens of Socio-legal and Policy Framework

“Women as mothers have been defined through their relationship with men and not as individuals who could head the family unit or could be the providers and carers, at the same time while nurturing their children without being dependent on men. This narrow construction of motherhood ignores the fact that merely through their existence, female-headed households, for ages, have been demolishing these regressive ideas.”
― Shalu Nigam, Single Mothers, Patriarchy and Citizenship in India: Rethinking Lone Motherhood through the Lens of Socio-legal and Policy Framework

“Bit by bit, piece by piece, and fractions by fractions, lone mothers are denting the age-old stubborn patriarchy through their active, conscious, empowered, feminist, and emancipatory mothering while pushing the traditional boundaries of family and gendered relations”
― Shalu Nigam, Single Mothers, Patriarchy and Citizenship in India: Rethinking Lone Motherhood through the Lens of Socio-legal and Policy Framework

“Single mothering is challenging the concept of the `male breadwinner and a provider’ model.”
― Shalu Nigam, Single Mothers, Patriarchy and Citizenship in India: Rethinking Lone Motherhood through the Lens of Socio-legal and Policy Framework