Women, Work, and Families : Balancing and Weaving Hardback

"Hattery's book is an important contribution to this literature.

The book is engaging and is well written. I would recommend this book and encourage Hattery to continue examination of this construct."  - Psychology of Women Quarterly Women, Work, and Family: Balancing and Weaving is a fascinating examination of the extraordinary juggling skills of working mothers who balance their obligations to both work and family.

Angela Hattery goes beyond a mere description of women's conflicts of interest and seeks to understand the decision-making process through which they accomplish this balancing. Through intensive interviews with 30 married women, all with children under 2 years of age, Hattery uncovers a remarkable range of ways in which these women weave together the complex strands of their lives.

The data in the volume are examined from a number of theoretical standpoints, including structural theory, motherhood theory, and feminist theory.

A key variable that runs through the data is economic need, which has an obvious effect on work patterns.

Women, Work, and Family will make a major contribution to family studies and will illuminate the difficult choices that women make within the family/work context.