"That's our kind of constellation" - Lesbian mothers negotiate institutionalized understandings of gender within the family

Building on more than two decades of feminist analysis of the family, this article takes a neoinstitutionalist approach to examine some of the ways th at set, gender; and sexual orientation intersect in lesbian-headed two-pare nt families, affecting how they construct their roles as mothers. Instituti onalist theory tends to de-emphasize how actors deliberately construct soci al arrangements such as parenting roles within the family. The authors' ana lysis of interviews from 14 lesbian mothers remedies this deficiency by foc using both on how they draw upon and transform institutionalized scripts, p ractices, and understandings of family roles and relations. Their findings reveal how these mothers reinscribed gendered understandings while simultan eously challenging heteronormative ones in their efforts to construct and m aintain socially viable two-parent families.