Synopses & Reviews
Sylvia Ann Hewlett, the acclaimed author of
When the Bough Breaks: The Cost of Neglecting Our Children, tackles one of the most wrenching challenges for women today creating rich multidimensional lives that contain both career and children. Almost half of all professional women are childless at age forty. The more a woman succeeds in her career, the less likely it is that she will have a partner or a baby. For men the opposite is true: the more successful a man is professionally, the more likely it is that he will be married with children. By and large professional women have not chosen to be childless. Indeed, most of them yearn for a child and are prepared to go to the ends of the earth to find a baby, often expending huge amounts of time, money, and energy. But in the end, the age-old business of having babies eludes many. Modern women can be playwrights, politicians, and chief executives, but increasingly, they cannot be mothers.
Hewlett brings to the book her substantial expertise as a policy analyst and her own difficult experiences of pregnancy and motherhood. Combining poignant and compelling portraits of women's lives with a groundbreaking survey commissioned specifically for this book, she gives voice to women's hopes and anguish and unearths stunning new information. For example, 42 percent of women in corporate America are childless at age forty (compared to 25 percent of men), but only 14 percent planned to be. Hewlett's exhaustive research reveals a host of circumstances that have conspired to produce brutal trade-offs in the lives of professional women: America's long-hours corporate culture, a stubbornly traditional division of labor at home, and a fertility industry that lulls women into a false sense that they can get pregnant deep into middle age. The voices Hewlett captures are searingly honest and the information contained in her new survey is devastating. But these facts and these stories can both liberate and empower young women. Creating a Life is vital reading for any woman contemplating a future that includes both career and children.
Review
"Sylvia Ann Hewlett writes with empathy and knowledge about a circumstance confronting millions of women in America today. Her candor is refreshing." Bill Bradley, former U.S. Senator
Review
"This provocative book should and will trigger very important debate and discussion about work and family for both women and men." Ellen Galinksy, author of Ask the Children
Review
"A powerful and moving book. A must-read for career women everywhere and for the men who love them. It is also a wake-up call for many executives who benefit immensely from women's talents and have the power to change outdated rules." Judith Wallerstein, Ph.D., author of The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce
Review
"Hewlett supplements her survey findings with the poignant stories of women who went through the labyrinths of hell trying to conceive in later life. [Her] findings to seem to tap into truths nobody wants to talk much about." USA Today