Working Women Don't Have Wives: Professional Success in the 1990s

Many working women feel that their lives would be much easier if only they had a traditional "wife" figure at home. Unfortunately, rarely does such a situation exist. But how are women today actually handling the dilemmas created by their dual needs? What compromises and conditions are necessary to allow women to realize their full potential? Can women ever expect to succeed in a male-dominated society? How does this affect their children? Terri Apter, acclaimed author of Altered Loves, examines the pressures on today's working women as they try to balance the responsibilities of marriage and childcare with the growing demands of the workplace. Blending over 100 interviews with working women into her analysis, Apter shows how the myth of the "superwoman" masks the problems that real women must face. In chapters such as "What Do Women Want?," "Why Do Women Mother?, " and "Having it All: New Options, New Myths, " Apter shows how increasing working hours and decreasing job security have presented today's working women with a new set of conflicts. She also makes the point that women who succeed in combining the best of both worlds do so only by changing patterns at work and home. This important book should be read not only by all working women but also by anyone concerned with this increasingly problematic issue.