Email a friendThe Feminine Mistake
Women are constantly being told—by the media and elsewhere—that it’s simply too difficult to balance work and family, so if they don’t really “have to” work, it’s better for their families if they stay home. Not only is this untrue, Leslie Bennetts says, but the arguments in favor of stay-at-home motherhood fail to consider the surprising benefits of work and the unexpected toll of giving it up. It’s time, she says, to get the message across—combining work and family really is the best choice for most women, and it’s eminently doable. “You never know what you can achieve until you try,” Bennetts says.
Leslie Bennetts raised two children while earning a living, and understands the challenges and the rewards firsthand. She and millions of other working women provide ample proof that there are many different ways to have kids, maintain a challenging career, and have a richly rewarding life as a result. Earning money and being successful make women feel great, and when women sacrifice their financial autonomy by quitting their jobs, they become vulnerable to divorce as well as the potential illness, death, or unemployment of their breadwinner husbands. The truth is that when women gamble on dependency, most eventually end up on the wrong side of the odds.
Bennetts’ own family learned this lesson the hard way: Her grandmother suffered a lifetime of financial problems after her husband left her, and Bennetts’ mother ended up as the family’s primary breadwinner. But women who stop working sacrifice far more than financial security. Bennetts’ painstaking research documents the steep toll when women forfeit the intellectual, emotional, psychological, and even medical benefits of self-sufficiency.
In riveting interviews with women from a wide range of backgrounds, Bennetts tells their dramatic stories—some triumphant, others heartbreaking. The Feminine Mistake will inspire women to accept the challenge of figuring out who they are and what they want to do with their lives in addition to raising children. Not since Betty Friedan has anyone offered such an eye-opening and persuasive argument for why women can—and should—make more than one kind of mark on the world, and embrace the joyously complex lives they deserve.
Publication history: Voice hc (4/07), 978-1-4013-0306-8, 1-4013-0306-4
Women are constantly being told
Hear an interview with Leslie Bennetts“Packed with pragmatic, well-researched advice, this manifesto on the power of financial independence is bound to inspire discussion among career women as well as stay-at-home moms.”
—USA Today
“A provocative examination of the economic pitfalls facing stay-at-home moms…a clarion call…that taking the mommy track is risky business.”
—People
“As wise an argument as has been proffered in some time…there are too many smart women who choose to be ignorant about the financial structure that supports the family. Until it doesn’t.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“The most shocking thing about Leslie Bennetts' book The Feminine Mistake (Voice) is that it had to be written at all: that some 44 years after the publication of the Betty Friedan classic that the title plays on, women still need to be reminded of the risks of being economically dependent on a man.”
—Peggy Orenstein, Elle
“In a time of trumped-up “opting-out” and “nesting-fever” trends, The Feminine Mistake comes as an essential corrective. With good sense, hard facts, ample wit, and compelling urgency, Leslie Bennetts delivers an incontrovertible argument for economic self-sufficiency as the fundament of women’s well-being. The Feminine Mistake should be required reading for all young women, and a lot of older ones, too.”
—Susan Faludi, author of Backlash
“Leslie Bennetts' powerful book should be a wake-up call for women of every generation. No woman could possibly confuse care and cash again after reading about the true price women pay for economic dependence.”
—Liz Perle, author of Money, a Memoir
“OMG. A must-read for every woman! The Feminine Mistake reveals the truth about women and work and forces us all to rethink the social contract for females in our society.”
—Louann Brizendine, author of The Female Brain
“Leslie Bennetts tackles head-on the popular myth that a man is a financial plan. In this hard-hitting, eminently readable book, she explains why every marriage license should come with a warning label: Beware! Economic dependency can be dangerous to your health, happiness, and financial security. Should be required reading for all young women contemplating marriage and a family.”
—Ann Crittenden, author of The Price of Motherhood and If You've Raised Kids, You Can Manage Anything
“This is a book every mother should give her daughter—I LOVE IT. It has a swift, urgent passion that makes it a real page-turner, and the message is of huge importance. The Feminine Mistake will inspire a new generation to celebrate the promise and the power of being a woman whose first line of defense is herself.”
—Tina Brown
