Analysing American Advice Books for Single Mothers Raising Sons: Essentialism, Culture and Guilt

Although single fathers as primary carers are on the rise, most single-parent households in the United States are headed by women. These women are a lucrative market for parenting books and most of these books are aimed at single mothers raising sons. This intersectional study analyses the way in which these advice books draw on mother-blame language, misconceptions of neuropsychological research and traditional conceptualisations of masculinity and femininity to convince the mother readers that they are unable to raise a son to be a man. The study further connects the advice books to a cultural backlash against ideas of ‘involved fatherhood’ and ‘caring masculinity’, exploring how the authors argue for a return to traditional family structures.