The Feminine Mistake Winner

We’ve talked a lot about The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennett’s here on Blog Fabulous. I’m thrilled to have the publishers send a copy of this fantastic book to Lindley from my post Gloria Steinem Got Married.

My book club read it and it was one of the very few books that nearly everyone finished and then changed their perceptions. None of us can stop talking about it.

This book talks about work and women. It examines the benefits to women and their families if women work. It examines the real and present dangers if women do not work.

Here’s the thing – I was prepared to hate this book and disagree with it’s premise. I quit my professional journalist job to be home with my kids. I was defensive about my Mommy War position and my reasons for “choosing” that.

Several of my book club friends have made similar choices. Several of my book club friends are professionals with higher education degrees who made the opposite choice as I have. I was kind of expecting it to be controversial within the club. It wasn’t. The only person who hated the book was the SAHM who didn’t read the book and kept feeling a need to defend the old SAHM arguments.

After reading the book – we all felt powerful enough to re-examine our choice in a more educated light. We didn’t feel trapped in our choices. We didn’t feel like we’d made permanent choices – we felt empowered to change our minds and reevaluate what we really want as women – wives and mothers.

Two of my book clubbies went back to college to pursue more ambitious careers.

One of the mommies quit looking forword to the day she could quit her job.

I let go of mountains of working mommy guilt and started accepting the feminine judgement that often has me feeling like I have to fence-sit to make everyone happy. Which really – makes no one happy – least of all me. Won’t half of you hate/judge me anyway no matter what I do? Making a choice to ward off judgement isn’t a “choice” it’s just cowardice.

I don’t know what your working/SAHM internal Mommy War is like. But, I do know this – every single woman I’ve ever met has some insecurity about it and it either makes them aggressive or insecure and defensive. This book will help you let go of that and re-examine your choices in a new less defensive light.

Or at least it did me.

More on themes of The Feminine Mistake:

Battle Ground of Feminism: The Home

15 Years – Suck It Up

Stress for SAHMS v. Working Moms

Motherhood is a Temp Job: The Feminine Mistake