Raising Boys Without Men: How Maverick Moms are Creating the Next Generation of Exceptional Men (Paperback)

~ Peggy Drexler Ph.D. (Author), Linden Gross (Author) "HI, MY NAME IS PEGGY, and I'm a mother." I'm also a worrier..." (more)
Key Phrases: maverick moms, maverick mothers, social mom, San Francisco, New York, Ursula Hardy (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Single or gay mothers-whom Drexler dubs "maverick moms"-are "real" parents, in case anyone needed reminding. The families they create are "as real and as legitimate as any other." The author, an assistant professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, bases her book on an extensive research study she conducted. Though she's curiously cagey on numbers, she does reveal that she interviewed a variety of lesbian mothers, single mothers, sons of single moms and sons of two-mother families. The results of her survey serve as a refreshing antidote to critics who insist that family life today is on the verge of being atomized. In an upbeat but never preachy tone, Drexler retells anecdote after anecdote illustrating her point (namely, that female-headed households may be better for boys than households with men). The book is mostly narrative in structure, with bulleted points at the end of each chapter explaining what "maverick moms" do that makes them successful parents (they encourage their sons to participate in a wide variety of activities; they actively recruit male figures from their families and the community to be in their sons' lives; they model the behavior they want their sons to emulate, and set examples of strength and compassion; etc.). This important work will serve as a beacon to the country's nearly 10 million single mothers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"This important work will serve as a beacon to the country's single mothers."-Publishers Weekly" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594865388
• ISBN-13: 978-1594865381
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #789,218 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The facts don't lie, August 24, 2005

By	Dads Matter "Concerned Father" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raising Boys Without Men: How Maverick Moms Are Creating the Next Generation of Exceptional Men (Hardcover)

Drexler claims point blank that boys do not need fathers. This is a significant claim to make, and, if true, would have enormous consequences for the way we think about family. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate what her research actually says, and more importantly, what it does not and cannot say. Accordingly, there are two things wrong with Drexler's book - the methodology and the argument itself.

First, the methodology. These are the three most glaring errors in her methodology:

1) The control group for her study is made up of one person - herself (page 28). She sets herself up as a "one woman control group" to make comparisons to her group of 90 fatherless families. Anyone with even a cursory understanding of research methodology knows that this is completely unacceptable, and that the control group has to be as similar in size and attributes as possible to the group that is being investigated.

2) She uses a small, unrepresentative sample - 30 lesbian moms, 30 single moms by choice, and 30 single moms by circumstance - (page 27) to make inferences about the population as a whole. Again, a cursory understanding of statistical and research methods shows that unless you have a sufficiently large, random sample, you simply cannot make inferences about the whole population. But Drexler uses her research to claim that ALL boys do not need fathers. For more of her bias and elitist sample, see pages 24 and 25.

3) She does not measure outcomes using a well-tested instrument with which to determine how the children are doing across measures of child development and well-being. Instead, she relies on interviews with young children (primarily from the lesbian moms) to make the broad determination that these boys are "better off" without a father. The self-reporting of children is notoriously unreliable for the purposes of academic research.

Second, the argument itself. Three principle flaws in her argument:

1) Over the past 25 years, an enormous amount of social science research has shown that across measures of economic, educational, health, emotional, psychological, and behavioral well-being, children with involved fathers fare better, on average, than children without involved fathers. These two and a half decades of research cannot be overturned by one flawed, small-scale study that does not even measure outcomes over a long period of time.

2) If Drexler's research was reliable, the implication would be that when men get women pregnant, their children are actually better off if the father leaves. But Drexler also claims that male involvement is important for boys, and that boys will seek out this male involvement on their own. This means that fathers should not take responsibility for their own children, but should make sure that they make themselves available for someone else's children, who were presumably left behind by their father. This is illogical.

3) Based on her biased sample, Drexler's research tells us nothing about the vast majority of fatherless homes. The vast majority of fatherless homes are produced by divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth, where, by circumstances beyond the single mother's control, she is left to raise her child on her own. They are often living in poverty. But, again, the majority of Drexler's small sample was of well-off women raising children fatherless, by choice, which would produce an entirely different environment for the children than the vast majority of single mother households.

In conclusion, it is borderline fraudulent for Drexler to claim that her research is a reliable tool to infer that boys do not need fathers. Her research method and her argument are deeply flawed and need to be addressed in front of a national audience that has been exposed to her faulty publication. We need to send the message to boys that they need to be involved, responsible, and committed fathers and that girls need to value and uphold the importance of the future fathers of their children for the sake of their children's well being.

I would encourage all to read Father Facts by the National Fatherhood Initiative, Fatherless America by David Blankenhorn, and Fatherneed by Kyle Pruett for the TRUTH!

36 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stacking the deck, feminist style, October 8, 2005

By	anonymous "spacedad" (Southern CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raising Boys Without Men: How Maverick Moms Are Creating the Next Generation of Exceptional Men (Hardcover)

One previous review from the son of a lesbian mom, which has since been mysteriously deleted, read in part:

"Now Dr. Drexler has emailed everyone who participated in her study to urge them to write postive reviews."

This explains the many reviews here gushing about how her so-called "research" is "comforting", "reassuring", "validating", etc. Try adding "self-selected", "biased", and "agenda-driven" to describe Dr. Drexler's cozy interviews with affluent lesbian and single-by-choice mothers.

The alleged "Drexler-solicited" reviews are easy to spot - they almost all mention the author's "research", they have 5 stars, and are typically the only book that person has ever reviewed on Amazon. And there was a mysterious deluge of them between Sep 18 and Sep 21, 2005 - all in response to a mass emailing, perhaps?

Much of the book is designed to assuage any insecurities or guilt among single mothers-by-choice (either by insemination or by ejecting the child's father from the family). But most concerning to me are the reviews from "women's industry" types (child psychologists, social workers, etc.) who will use this book to support their goal of removing even more "unimportant" fathers from the lives of children, based on little more than the mother's whim and desire for a child support check. This, I suspect, was one of Dr. Drexler's goals in writing this book in the first place.

Yes, mothers can raise boys successfully, but without an involved dad let's not pretend that it's easier and that the results are bound to be better, let alone "exceptional"! Our nation's prisons are "exceptionally" full of men who grew up without a father...

12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shoddy research, January 14, 2007

By	Jonathan Crane - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raising Boys Without Men: How Maverick Moms Are Creating the Next Generation of Exceptional Men (Hardcover)

Drexler seems to forget that anecdotal evidence cannot be used to justify the type of claims she's making in this book, which is riddled with biased sample and hasty generalization fallacies. Drexler makes sweeping statements about the efficacy of single mother parenting without even attempting to clearly define her definition, let alone establish a double blind study or make any other attempt whatsoever to compensate for her bias. Instead, she relies on anecdotal evidence supplied by individuals who were clearly selected based on whether or not their stories support her conclusions.