Maternal optimism: Forging positive paths through work and motherhood. Jamie Ladge and Danna Greenberg New York: Oxford University Press, 2019, $35.00 hardback. pp. 272.

Abstract

I was in the ninth grade when I began to fret about how I would one day manage my life with work and family. I spent over a decade ruminating and planning and then spent another decade sprinting, ducking, and shifting. And now? Now I'm realizing that I have been in a process of mourning for the past couple of years. After all this time, I boldly stepped away from my "lifelong dream" and my "carefully crafted plan" to pursue a new vision for my career and life. There was a loss I could not fully understand or articulate until recently. Why do I share all of this? Because I clung to the pages of this book as part of my final stage of "acceptance." I doubt the authors had this super niche audience specifically in mind as they crafted this book, but I assert that it can serve as intellectual therapy for women navigating any stage of combined mothering and working-even addressing the "one day I think I may want to have kids, what does that mean for my career?" psychological profile and the "I'm walking away from this lifelong dream now" profile. Infertility struggles? It covers it. Midlife transitions? It covers it. Unexpected life changes (of pretty much every flavor)? It covers it. This book is both a well-researched, respectable work and a warm, inclusive source of comfort. If that sounds like something you could use some of in your life.. . go read it. One of the unexpected joys of reading the words of Ladge and Greenberg is that you are both seen in your circumstances and you are challenged to think about those of women whose lives are very different from your own. This is healthy and helpful intellectually, emotionally, and maybe even spiritually. They conclude the book with:. .. if you can begin to learn how to embrace your own work/life path, you can become more confident in your own decisions and more open to the choices of others. In doing so, you can become the change agent that leads the collective action we need from the men in our lives, the organizations they lead, and the broader society at large (p. 237). But do not get the wrong idea; this is certainly not a squishy-feely, pseudo self-help book. This book combines research from hundreds of well-respected studies, and crafts what I would consider to be a modern anthropological narrative of the working mom. Could they go into more detail in parts of the book? Absolutely. They could have written a book on nearly every topic they dip into. However, let's be honest: if you are like this working mom, you probably appreciate the succinct and efficient. They can always write follow-up books.. . and I'll read those too. I have to admit that as I was reading Maternal Optimism I kept thinking "wow, this book covers everything!" But then I would immediately remember that I am a privileged, highly educated Caucasian woman, and I continually wondered if the book was primarily applicable to white-collared professionals. Discussion of racial and socioeconomic challenges are threaded throughout, but it is undeniable that the heavy focus of the book reflects a perspec...