This book examines female-headed/female-supported households in a wide variety of local contexts and links them to wider economic, social, and political processes. It focuses on the importance of culture and the ways in which culture interacts with race, class, and gender.

1. Introduction 2. Poverty Versus "Purse Power": The Political Economy of the Mother-Child Family III 3. An Etic Model for the Scientific Study of the Causes of Matrifocality 4. A Way Out of No Way: Female-Headed Households in Jamaica Reconsidered 5. Caught in the Shift: The Impact of Industrialization on Female-Headed Households in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles 6. Some Conceptual Issues: Female Single-Parent Families in the United States 7. Similarities and Differences: Female-Headed Households in Brazil and Colombia 8. An Ignored Population: Female-Headed Households Among Refugees in Africa 9. Women-Headed Households from the Perspective of an Egyptian Village 10. Female-Headed, Female-Supported Households in India: Who Are They and What Are Their Survival Strategies? 11. Female-Headed Households in Rural Bangladesh: A Survey 12. Defining and Targeting Female-Headed Households for Development Assistance in South Asia 13. Policy Planning for Single Female-Headed Families: What Is Needed in the United States 14. Conclusion: Pulling It All Together