Ambitious like a mother Why prioritizing your career is good for your kids

Bazelon was inspired by her mother's life: she got married and went to medical school, outsourcing home chores and childcare while having a successful career. She considers her mother a pioneer--one who gained financial independence, rewrote expectations of mothering, and was a great mom. This book has Bazelon wondering why, after so many years, working women still face the same age-old topics that plagued her mother: workplace gender bias and heavy lifting at home, including most of the child rearing. Today, 86% of U.S. women between 40 and 44 have children. During the COVID pandemic, the plight of working women has been heightened and given fresh consideration in the workplace. Bazelon encourages everyone to embrace these discussions and move away from work--life balance by accepting the intertwined demands of having a family and career. Through numerous stories, she illustrates how women can redefine--and are redefining--what it means to be a working mother while achieving career success and being great mothers. This book will appeal to working women, those interested in gender studies, and young people embarking on their careers.

Law professor Bazelon (A Good Mother) rejects the idea of the self-sacrificing mother in this bold treatise. "The truth--that striving for success in the workplace has the potential to make women better mothers, not worse ones--remains controversial," Bazelon writes. "It challenges the enduring belief that a 'good mother' is a woman who subordinates her own desires to her children's needs." She shares her own experiences as a career-focused mother, as well as those of others, and quashes the ideal of perfect work-life balance as she addresses common institutional barriers that impede women's careers, lack of affordable childcare and gender bias in the workplace among them. Her case is bolstered by interviews with the children of working moms, and it adds up to a convincing argument that professional achievement both allows women to have greater freedom and acts as a valuable lessons that demonstrates to "children that by pursuing our dreams and ambitions, we are strong, independent, and eminently capable." This is sure to make working mothers feel seen and celebrated. (Apr.)