The Fatherless Daughter Project
Understanding Our Losses and Reclaiming Our Lives
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“This groundbreaking work will give voice to an enormous population of women who are struggling to understand themselves in the face of their fathers’ absence.” —Claire Bidwell Smith, author of The Rules of Inheritance and After This
When Motherless Daughters was published 20 years ago, it unleashed a tsunami of healing awareness. When Denna Babul and Karin Smithson couldn't find the equivalent book for fatherlessness, The Fatherless Daughter Project was born. The book will set fatherless women on the path to growth and fulfillment by helping them to understand how their loss has impacted their lives.
A father is supposed to provide a sense of security and stability. Losing a father comes with particular costs that vary depending on the way he left and how old a girl was when she lost him. Drawing on interviews with over 5000 women who became fatherless due to death, divorce, neglect, and outright abandonment, the authors have found that fatherless daughters tend to push their emotions underground. These issues in turn become distinct patterns in their relationships as adult women and they often can't figure out why. Delivered with compassion and expertise, this book allows readers support and understanding they never had when they first needed it, and it encourages the conversation to continue.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Babul, a life coach, and Luise, a counselor and inspirational speaker, join their expertise and experiences both grew up without their biological fathers in this wide-ranging look at how fatherlessness affects women. Their text (as well as a forthcoming documentary) draws on over 1,000 interviews and a social media survey to conclude that the loss or absence of a father can cause a woman to suffer effects that include self-doubt, sadness, anger, fear, resentment, and difficulty trusting. They discuss the primary ways that loss can occur, such as divorce, death, abandonment, and incarceration, and explore how age at the time of loss affects a daughter's response. On the flip side, they find that fatherless daughters also exhibit strength, resilience, and self-awareness, among other positive traits. About 91 percent of the women surveyed have "something they wished to say" to the fathers they lost, so the authors offer advice on when to give an emotionally estranged father another chance, and when to maintain distance (such as in the case of physical or emotional abuse). With interesting personal stories woven throughout, fatherless daughters will find this to be a supportive and encouraging guidebook to reclaiming their lives and healing their wounds.
