Review The Given Book In Terms Of Strengths And Weaknesses (Book Review Sample)

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Institution
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Book Review
The cases of women having children out of wedlock are many in the world today. Sometimes people tend to wonder about the reasons that lead to childbearing out of wedlock by the poor women in the society. However “Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage” is an attempt to answer such questions. The research by Edin and Kefalas shows the complexities that affect matrimonial and maternal decisions by the women of the poor socioeconomic status. The two researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 162 women who acted as a representative of the urban poor women in Philadelphia, Camden NJ, and PA. The women were selected based on particular criteria that would make them fit in the given socioeconomic status. The ethnicity of the women comprised of three distinct groups including Puerto Rican, African American, and the White. The investigative method used by the researcher elucidates the greatest strength of the work, and it also points the most glaring weakness of this research. Apart from the strengths and weaknesses of the investigation shown in the book, other accomplishments can be noted from the book.
The major achievement noted is that the use of the three specific neighborhood that has been mentioned above had some positive impacts to the study. The areas were not only geographically convenient to the investigators, but they offered a uniformly disseminated sample of multi-racial hitherto socio-economically congruent women. The indication is that the results of the finding can apply to people from different racial backgrounds and they cannot be confined to one group of individuals.
Aside from the research procedure represented in the book, the presentation of the information in the book is also an accomplishment. The authors have arranged the chapters of the book centrally around the experiences of the mothers. Each chapter shows the experience of a mother from each group and how her life points out the precise themes in the chapter. The chapters show a chronological order of the events in the women’s life from adulthood to childhood. For instance, the first chapter shows a process beginning from courtship, pregnancy, the collapse of relationship and then motherhood and how it has transformed the women’s lives. The writers have portrayed the intended themes through a central story and then covering a myriad of experience from other women (p. 27-168).
The greatest accomplishment in this book is that the researchers have been able to discover a very exciting information. The discovery entails the admiration for marriage by these poor mothers. Such discovery is a sharp contrast to the stereotypes held about women in such a socioeconomic class. Most conventional ideas show that the poor women who have kids out of wedlock do not have a desire to get married. However, Edin and Kefalas show that most women want to marry and they have included it in their lifelong goals. The findings also indicate that 70% of women get married in the long run, but for them, marriage can only occur under successful economic and relationship stability. The interviews conducted on these women show some standard requirements for marriage. Such requirements include well-paying jobs that will support a proper wedding and mortgage payments. The women also contend fragile relationship with men that reflect the struggles experienced by the inner-city poor. The effects of alcohol and drug abuse as well as criminal activities by the men and the general maturity of both the women and the men plague the relationships since the most enter into parenthood at a young age. The possibility of marriage is broached when such factors are managed and when both party’s reach financial maturity (p.71-104).In this case, Adin and Kefalas point out the key factors that influence the choices to enter into marriage even in the current generations.
The success of Edin and Kefalas research is seen in Chapter 4 of the book. The information shows that middle-class women view marriage as the start point of entrance into adulthood and as an institution where they hope to grow. On the contrary, most poor women see marriage as an end to their dreams of maturity and social mobility. To them, marriage remains to be a final goal to be attained at the end of their youth. The pessimism view towards matrimony has also been reviewed in this part of the book. The women see it as lack of independence and a general vulnerability to the women. However, the pessimism does not dishearten their enthusiasm to enter the marital institution in their later stage of life. Many women assert that they delay marriage to ensure that once they do it, they are ready for it and they do it once. They also contempt the couples who get married due to pregnancy. The high standards for marriage shown here remain unambiguous flaw to the requirements of the mothers for motherhood, which seem to be more pragmatic (p. 104-117).
Edin and Kefalas offer a ground for these women to speak and show a particular organization of their thinking and the simple thinking that supports their decisions. Thoughtful organization and arrangement allow the revelation to be obtained from the cent...