The author perfectly captured the guilt and other emotions experienced by women that have families and still want to have a fulfilling career and life.

As a maternal health researcher, feminist, and full-time working mother, this book was absolutely fascinating. I've often felt that this new cultural pressure for working women to lean in/be more confident/"get out of our own way" ignores the real structural barriers to women advancing in their careers once they have children, yet again placing the onus for change on women, who in this case are already working inside and outside the home and have enough to do. Encouraging women to have more confidence in their abilities is noble and positive, but, ultimately, all the confidence in the world isn't going to help a woman physically manage an untenable schedule. This book did a really good job of teasing this out using interview data from mothers who had left the workforce, and is an excellent piece of work advocating for change at the societal level: it's possible that some working mothers may need more confidence, but it's definitely true that all working moms would benefit from maternity leave, flexible schedules, and better childcare options.

I really, really loved this book, and am so happy to have been able to read/review it. My one, tiny complaint is that I could not be a more perfect audience for something like this, and I still found the preface/first chapter a bit difficult to get into. This first part is very academic and while this is a book most women I know should read, I also found it took a while to grab me. However, it was so worth sticking with, and I think it makes a really great contribution to the literature on motherhood. I highly recommend it!