Commentary
In this book on balancing the work/home relationship, Wendy Sachs provides a thorough overview of the many challenges faced by mothers who choose to work, and provides encouraging advice from other "stay-at-work moms." Sachs's position is that "having a career is not only good for women; it is good for mothers," because "working mothers know that having a career enhances both themselves and their parenting." Sachs interviews celebrity working moms such as Ann Curry, Soledad O'Brien, Cynthia Nixon, Deborah Norville, and Bobbi Brown about the challenges they have encountered and how they've dealt with them. She also interviews non-famous working moms--teachers, marketing managers, rabbis, lawyers, academics, and doctors--whose anecdotes display the range of options for stay-at-work-moms, including, among others, flex-time, working from home part-time, career changes, "switching gears," and starting one's own business. Sachs synthesizes the current literature on the issue, and interviews experts such as Sylvia Ann Hewett (THE WAR AGAINST PARENTS), Naomi Wolf, and Peggy Orenstein, all of whom agree that American society seems to be at war with stay-at-work moms-- a situation that is very different in other countries.