THE SUCCESSFUL WOMAN: How You Can Have a Career, a Husband, and a Family--and Not Feel Guilty About It

by Joyce Brothers ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 22, 1988

From America's most popular psychologist (How to Get Whatever You Want Out of Life, 1982, etc.), a look at how rich and famous women combine matrimony, motherhood, and careers, and what the relevance of their experiences might be to other women. The average overburdened working mother, however, is likely to chew nails as she reads of the likes of Mary Cunningham, Lynn Redgrave, and Barbara Walters swanning to dazzling worldly success and rewarding personal lives on ample bank accounts. Brothers claims that successful women put themselves first: they have decided whether career, children, or marriage is most important, and move toward their goals with a minimum of anxiety and stress. All of the featured women claim that they have had wonderful lives and cite their confident, resourceful children as proof that their decision for working motherhood was right. Citing this along with several studies that indicate married working women to be happier than their spouses and traditional wives, Brothers advises her readers ""to go"" for a career. They must, however, learn to shuck off energy-draining guilt. Once you realize you can't be the perfect wife/mother/career-woman, and determine which role should get your highest priority, you can make your life choices, accordingly, Brothers also recommends that the career-oriented woman find a husband who will share household chores, and then motivate him through praise and kisses. And yes: things can only get better because future husbands, reared by working mothers, will share responsibilities more equitably. Brothers claims that ""examining the choices"" of the women she has featured ""allows you to adapt, adopt or reject"" their particular strategies. Most of these strategies, however, require more financial resources than are available to the average working mother, struggling with a succession of jerry-built child-care arrangements, a full plate of housework, and confused, often disruptive kids.

Pub Date: June 22, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION