KIRKUS REVIEW
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.
