A uterus is a feature, not a bug The working woman's guide to overthrowing the patriarchy

Business journalist Lacy (Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good) offers women statistical evidence of what they already know: that workplaces are discriminatory and women are getting a bad deal. Her central thesis is that working moms don't have to choose between career and kids, but instead can use their parenting skills to improve their job performance. The argument is sound, but Lacy's advice is superficial and scant and her story seems to contradict rather than support her opinions. In recounting her experiences as the founder of the news site Pando and mother of two children, Lacy comes across as reckless-disregarding warnings against traveling to a dangerous country for an assignment because "I don't tend to respond well when someone tells me I can't do something"-and hypocritical, willing to tolerate a workplace bully only as long as someone else was the victim. Her comment "I sit for a moment, every morning... and just savor my smug satisfaction" is illustrative of her tone. Her story seems to suggest that women can have a career and children if they're willing to sacrifice their personal lives and even hygiene-at one point, her showers are being scheduled by a personal assistant. Chapters about gender equality in Iceland and China add heft, but make the book feel disjointed. Agent: Jim Levine, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

An impassioned guide for working women, especially working mothers, to dismantling the patriarchal systems that hold them back at work and at home, as told by a woman who shattered the mold.Like many young women, tech journalist and Pando.com founder Lacy (Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from the Global Chaos, 2011, etc.) was lied to as a child when her mother told her she had two choices: being the perfect mother or having the perfect career. Believing it to be true, she spent the first decade of adulthood completely focused on her career before committing to the "risk" of motherhood. After seeing the incredible transformative power parenthood had on her home and professional life, Lacy began to question the narrative she'd been led to believe about motherhood and career. Drawing from personal anecdotes, academic research, statistical analysis, and the experiences of other successful women founders and executives, including Sheryl Sandberg, Sheila Marcelo, and Marissa Mayer, the author works to dispel the myth that women must choose between motherhood and a career by dismantling the misconceptions of women in the workplace. Once a sexism denier herself, Lacy clearly and precisely identifies the active negative role the patriarchy plays in the lives of working mothers, from the microaggressions of benevolent sexism from other women to the blatant misogynistic business practices that work to hold women back at work. Brick by brick, she breaks down the maternal bias to reveal that parenthood has been proven, both anecdotally and statistically, to benefit not only employees on the job, but also the companies they work for. Though written with a focus on working mothers, Lacy's feminist manifesto speaks to the universal experiences of sexism and misogyny all women face in the workplace and in society at large. A fierce and persuasive call to action that demands women, especially millennials, rethink the relationship between maternity and career ambitions. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.