Joan Peters asks some tough questions: Why haven't we adapted motherhood and work to accommodate our vastly changed lives? How can we change the culture that forces women into an inequitable role as primary parent?
Women still struggle with the twin strains and guilt of wanting a career and a child and trying to do both tasks well.
Don't panic! Mothers who work should keep working. Good mothering does not require them to focus so intensely on their children that they have to give up crucial parts of their own identities. If women who are reared to participate economically, socially, and politically stop doing so, they risk their sense of self, their contentment - and their effectiveness as mothers and partners.
Drawing on the latest research and discussions with prominent psychologists, Peters explains our deep-seated resistance to mothering (and fathering) in new ways. She makes the case that, given sensible working conditions, a mother's employment means a richer parenting experience, stronger marriages and relationships, and more balanced children. With portraits of a dozen real families - corporate and blue collar, religious and secular, step and single parents, urban and suburban - Peters illustrates the strategies that make this new family life succeed.
'When Mothers Work' is a godsend for all stay-at-home and employed mothers today as well as all women who are wondering how to be good mothers and remain true to themselves.
