This study of 30 mothers looks at the varying ways women balance work and family life. It is carried out through intensive interviews and the data is examined from several theoretical standpoints, including structural theory, motherhood theory, and feminist theory. A supplemental text for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in Family Studies Programs and Women's Studies programs.

Introduction and History of Women¿s Labour Force Participation
Ideologies of Motherhood
Content and the Dominant Model
Balancing and Weaving to Be a `Good¿ Mother
Theoretical Paradigms for Understanding Maternal Labour Force Participation
To Work or Not to Work? That Is the Question
`Are Children Better Off if They Have New Bikes Rather Than Having You at Home?¿
Motherhood Ideology anf the Construction of Economic Need
`He¿s Got to Learn That the World Is Not Just He Alone¿
Solving the Childcare Dilemma
The Power of Ideology and the Ideology of Power

Angela J. Hattery,is Professorof the Women & Gender Studiesand co-Director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Gender Based Violence at theUniversityof Delaware.She received her BA in sociology and anthropology fromCarleton College andhermasters and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.She is the author of 12books.Hermost recent,Way Down intheHole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of RacialIdeologies in Solitary Confinement explores the ways in which racial antagonisms are exacerbated by theparticularstructures of solitaryconfinement.She is also the author ofPolicing Black Bodies: How Black Livesare Surveilled and How to Work forChange(2022)andGender, Power and Violence: Responding to Sexual and Intimate PartnerViolence in Society Today.Prior to coming to UD sheheld positions at Ball State University, Wake Forest University, Colgate University, and most recently at George Mason University.