Ambitious Like a Mother: Why Prioritizing Your Career Is Good for Your Kids

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.)