As an highly educated 30-year-old woman with a decent career and a child due in June, I am actively seeking differing opinions and viewpoints regarding the work/family debate. This book has been invaluable to me.

I think most of us are familiar with the arguments in favor of staying home with the kids. If not, you will need to look elsewhere for those. This book addresses the arguments in favor of keeping your career and your financial independence. Probably more inflammatory, it also rebuts the central tenets of the “my children need me at home” assertion.

Bennetts’ main line of reasoning is that supporting your husband in his career while you take care of things at home might work financially for right now. But what about the 50% divorce rate? What about layoffs? What about disability or death? We blithely assume that, especially with a good education to back us up, we can jump back into our careers whenever necessary. Bennetts raises the question: what if it’s not as easy as you think?

She raises other points to ponder, as well. What will happen to social progress if we take a graceful exit from the workforce? Employers might think they no longer have to put up with female employees who have kids at home. Moreover, graduate schools might cut back on admission of women if they realize (as they already do) that women are earning degrees just to hang on their living room walls. What will we tell our daughters if their opportunities are reduced because we didn’t want to put up with the demands of both work and family life?

Overall, however, I found this to be a highly optimistic book. She’s not saying, “Slog through it, you have to, you owe the women who paved your way.” Instead, Bennetts talks at length about how rewarding it is to have a life full of everything you love–family and success. Lots of interviews with women from the generation before us show how we might have gotten the mistaken impression from our mothers that creating work/life balance is more struggle than it’s worth. In fact, maybe they were just afraid to tell us how much fun they were having when we weren’t around!

If you are looking for a counterpoint to the admittedly enormous gravitational pull a new baby can exert in your life, you have found your book.

Review by Charlotte, NC, USA on Amazon