vivian_munich's review against another edition
3.0
Heading Home interviewed a group of highly-educated and successful professional women in the US and UK who chose to opt out of the workplace to take care of their children. They comforted themselves that it was entirely a personal choice due to individual preference. But was it?
Granted, all of these women belong to a niche privileged group (white, upper-middle class, stellar education and professional track records, husbands with high-earning jobs), but the research still offers an insightful look into stay-at-home mothers' psyche. If these women who've got it all are not happy with their child-caring state, what about all the other less privileged ones? Throughout the book Orgad offers many interesting and provocative ideas that made me pause and think. And I finally got what's wrong with the "girl power" feminism. The key to achieve gender equality lies in dismantling patriarchal structures, not in telling women to be more confident, to "lean in", and to internalize external inequalities into self-blame.
3 stars because I find the writing all over the place and the author not good at summarizing her arguments and main points - it definitely felt like an essay stretched into a book. Still worth reading though.
Granted, all of these women belong to a niche privileged group (white, upper-middle class, stellar education and professional track records, husbands with high-earning jobs), but the research still offers an insightful look into stay-at-home mothers' psyche. If these women who've got it all are not happy with their child-caring state, what about all the other less privileged ones? Throughout the book Orgad offers many interesting and provocative ideas that made me pause and think. And I finally got what's wrong with the "girl power" feminism. The key to achieve gender equality lies in dismantling patriarchal structures, not in telling women to be more confident, to "lean in", and to internalize external inequalities into self-blame.
3 stars because I find the writing all over the place and the author not good at summarizing her arguments and main points - it definitely felt like an essay stretched into a book. Still worth reading though.
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