Doing It All

The Social Power of Single Motherhood

By: Ruby Russell

Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle

A feminist exploration of single motherhood and a passionate call to reclaim the power of mothering

In the United States, one child in five is raised by a single mother. Yet the single mom is still cast as victim or welfare queen, sexually irresponsible, or too independent for her own (or her children's) good.

In Doing It All, journalist and single mother Ruby Russell tells a different story, of single mothering not defined by loss by whole and powerful in its own right. She finds narratives of liberation in Victorian brothels and postwar British slums, in Black feminist theory and the grassroots activism of women fighting for welfare rights.

Doing It All is a personal quest for empowerment, a fierce critique of the systems that leave single moms marginalized and exhausted, and a call to reclaim mothering as the life force of sustainable, connected, and radically responsible communities.

©2024 Ruby Russell (P)2025 Tantor Media