Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader

Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage 2nd Revised edition Edition

by
Kathryn Edin (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Kathryn Edin Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Kathryn Edin (Author), Maria J. Kefalas (Author), Frank Furstenberg (Foreword)
4.6 out of 5 stars 33 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0520248199
ISBN-10: 0520248198
Why is ISBN important?
ISBN
This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The 13-digit and 10-digit formats both work.
Scan an ISBN with your phone
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Buy used
$10.95
Condition: Used - Very Good
In Stock. Sold by bookblitz777, Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Very Good

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon .

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
58 Used from $3.74
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
More Buying Choices
10 New from $34.95 58 Used from $3.74
68 used & new from $3.74
See All Buying Options
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Author interviews, book reviews, editors picks, and more. Read it now
click to open popover

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. Doing the Best I Can: Fatherhood in the Inner City
    Kathryn Edin
    4.3 out of 5 stars 12
    Hardcover
    $24.30 Prime
  2. The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today
    Andrew J. Cherlin
    3.9 out of 5 stars 18
    Paperback
    $12.88 Prime
  3. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life
    Annette Lareau
    4.6 out of 5 stars 45
    Paperback
  4. The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home
    Arlie Hochschild
    4.3 out of 5 stars 18
    Paperback
    $10.41 Prime
  5. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, 2nd Edition with an Update a Decade Later
    Annette Lareau
    4.7 out of 5 stars 48
    Paperback
    $24.95 Prime
  6. When Work Disappears : The World of the New Urban Poor
    William Julius Wilson
    4.0 out of 5 stars 39
    Paperback
    $13.67 Prime
Next
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
The latest book club pick from Oprah
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more

Product Details

  • Paperback: 298 pages
  • Publisher: University of California Press; 2nd Revised edition edition (March 21, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0520248198
  • ISBN-13: 978-0520248199
  • Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsFor Micki - directed reading
By L. Gunlogson on November 2, 2005
Format: Hardcover
Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas spent five years living with, working with and interviewing poor women from all races and age groups who live in the depressed and poverty stricken neighborhoods of Philadelphia and its poorest industrial suburb, Camden, New Jersey. Armed with the knowledge of intimate details from 162 single mothers' lives that could only be gained by spending years in their company, Edin and Kefalas wrote Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage.

The authors set out to disprove the commonly held stereotypes about poor young women who have children out of wedlock when they are still teenagers or in their early twenties. They assert that most middle class Americans assume that these women are either unable or unwilling to use birth control, or that they are using children as a way to gain access to more welfare benefits. However, in the course of their research, they found this conventional wisdom to be largely untrue. They discovered that these young women are having babies simply because they want to have babies. There are, of course, mitigating factors such as pressure to conceive from a boyfriend or rebellion against parents, but almost all of the single mothers interviewed make it clear that they were happy when they found out they were pregnant and happy to have children, even if the responsibility makes their lives considerably harder.

Edin and Kefalas give us some startling statistics which reveal how widespread the practice of having children out of wedlock has become. In Philadelphia, where the women they interviewed live, more than six out of ten births are now outside of marriage. Across the U.S., that number is one in three.Read more ›
5 Comments 152 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsWhy Put Motherhood Before Marriage?
By J. Akil on November 4, 2006
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Often when the question is posed as to why do poor women continue to have children before they are obviously -at least to the majority of Americans it is obvious-in the most opportune position to accomplish the task of parenting successfully, several common responses are usually offered. The most common retort may be that poor women don't have access to low-cost or free contraception and/or abortion providers, followed by claims that these women are just irresponsible and possess low ( or completely lack) moral values. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, poor women have less access to inexpensive contraceptive supplies and behavior that may be common in the ghettoes of America can be starkly contrasted against what is deemed acceptable in middle and upper-class communities. Yet it turns out that these differences have surprisingly little to do with why poor women consistently put motherhood before marriage.

Sociologists Edin and Kefalas spent 5 years interviewing, studying and interacting with a group consisting of one-hundred and sixty-two women from eight impoverished communities to find the real answer to this perturbing question. Along the way Edin and Kefalas dispell the myths and stereotypes pertaining to poor men and women and their attitudes regarding motherhood and marriage. It turns out that rather than viewing marriage as an inconsequential and outdated institution, the interviewies revered marriage. What the authors discovered was that the women held marriage to such a high-standard and erected so many hurdles to be jumped before they would consider getting married that they effectively placed the hallowed institution outside of their reach in the near future.Read more ›
Comment 22 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsKeep this book to get real answers about youth pregnancy in the inner cities
By Robin Orlowski on August 25, 2005
Format: Hardcover
The qualitative research in this book explains why so many young women in inner city communities are getting pregnant--and at increasingly younger ages than previous generations of their peers.

1996's welfare reform was driven by the specter of 'lazy' and unmarried teens having litters of children, but this book asks us to consider what responsibility means in neighborhoods with fading and non-existent infrastructure (p. 32).

In these communities having children provides a form of tangible belonging. The kids are not the means to a monthly check, but a way to show the world that 'I had this many strikes against me and I became an adult'. Coming from a middle class background myself, I was particularly struck that these young men are telling women that they want to have a baby with HER eyes (p. 31) because I then realized that a baby would in fact be a representation of the two people having been together at one point.

Ideally they would continue to stay together and raise the kid, but the authors (who previously wrote on urban poverty and welfare issues) also harbor no illusions about the young men who leave during a pregnancy and after a baby is born. Yet they also avoid finger-pointing and moralizing in favor of then examining the role which American society plays in encouraging these young teens to have sex and babies.

Again we go back to the community infrastructure arguments and a disturbing but cognizant picture of complicity develops. Public figures restricting both reproductive and social services in these communities are ironically doing more to encourage subsequent generations to keep having sex.Read more ›
Comment 44 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA must-read for people interested in inequality

This book should be required reading for anyone thinking about poverty and childhood education. After reading this book, even as someone from a completely different world, you feel... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsShould be essential reading for everyone

As a middle-class male, I am probably not among the groups that would buy a book like this. I certainly would not be one of its subjects. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the best books I have ever read

One of the best books I have ever read. My original copy had gone missing so I ordered this one. Recommend to all my co-workers.

Published 17 months ago by Susan Leon
5.0 out of 5 starsChildren save our lives

We've emotionally destroyed too many men or sent them to prison or war (with the same outcome really). Read more

Published 18 months ago by Deidre Hammon
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

wonderful book it gives you wonderful insight on poor women having kids. Most read

Published 19 months ago by crazy
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Good book, into the minds of teenage parents from low socioeconomic backgrounds/communities.

Published 21 months ago by Nidia
4.0 out of 5 starsFor teenagers to understand the complexity of becoming a young mother

A great book for teenagers to understand the complexity of becoming a young mother. The book exposes facts, statistics, and comparisons of different families, environments, support... Read more

Published 23 months ago by Yazmin
5.0 out of 5 starsEnlightening book.

This is an amazing book, very enlightening with in-depth interviews that widen our understanding of very difficult issues that are so often viewed with negative stigma. Read more

Published on February 27, 2014 by Barbara Feldmar
4.0 out of 5 starsCool Book

I really like this book, It has many stories that tug on your heart strings. I am glad I am reading this for class.

Published on February 25, 2013 by Taylor Schreck
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Condition

I was hoping the book purchased would be in great condition and it is. Covers aren't ripped up and the spine of the book is still intact. No complaints from me!

Thanks!

Published on October 16, 2012 by misslee

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.