Ambitious Like A Mother:
Why Prioritizing Your Career Is Good For Your Kids
In this singular cultural moment, mothers have unparalleled opportunities to succeed at work while continuing to face the same societal impediments that held back our mothers and grandmothers. We still encounter entrenched gender bias in the workplace and are expected to shoulder the lion’s share of labor and burdens at home while being made to feel as if we’re never doing enough. All the while we’re told that the perfect work-life balance is possible, if only we try hard enough to achieve it.
It’s time to change the conversation—about work, life, and “balance.” Work and life are inextricably, intimately intertwined. We need to celebrate what we do give our children—even and especially in moments of imbalance—rather than apologizing for what we don’t. In this way, we can model for our children how we use our talents to help others and raise awareness about the issues closest to our hearts. We can embrace the personal fulfillment and financial independence that pursuing meaningful work can bring as a way of showing our children how to live happy, purpose-driven lives. Bazelon argues not only that we can but that we should. Being ambitious at work and being a good mother to our children are not at odds—these qualities mutually reinforce each other.
Backed up by research and filled with personal stories from Bazelon’s life, as well as that of her mother and the many other women she interviewed across the cultural and financial spectrum, Ambitious Like a Mother is an anthem, a beacon for all to recognize and celebrate the pioneering women who reject the false idols of the Selfless Mother and Work-Life Balance, and a call to embrace your own ambitions and model for your children what it means to lead a purpose-driven life.
PRAISE FOR AMBITIOUS LIKE A MOTHER
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Hardcover
Ebook & Audio Book
A Good Mother: A Novel of Suspense
When a soldier is found stabbed through the heart at a US Army base in Germany, there is no doubt that his young wife, Luz, is to blame. But was it an act of self-defense? An attempt to save her infant daughter? Or the cold-blooded murder of an innocent man?
Ambitious public defender Abby is determined to win at all costs. As a new mother herself, she wants to keep Luz out of prison and with her daughter. But when the surprises stack up and shocking new evidence emerges, Abby realizes the task proves far more difficult than she suspected and will require a terrible sacrifice.
As the trial hurtles toward an outcome no one expects, Abby, Luz and a captivated jury are forced to answer the question that will decide everything—what does it mean to be a good mother?
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Hardcover/Ebook:
Audio Book:
Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice
After Wrongful Conviction
In the courtroom, there are always—and only— two irreconcilable sides of the same story. Black/white. Right/wrong. Feller/fallen. When the wrong story prevails, justice is perverted and an innocent person is condemned. When there is an exoneration, we expect a happy ending. But an exoneration is an earthquake that leaves behind upheaval and ruin. Is there a way forward?
Restorative justice, a centuries-old practice of bringing together victims, offenders, and their families to address the harm inflicted by a crime, offers hope by focusing on healing and redemption. The suffering experienced by the people involved in a wrongful conviction case varies, but arises from a shared traumatic experience. It means that men and women who once faced each other down from opposite sides of the courtroom can unite in a common cause.
They are uniting: restoring their lives and making their own justice. In voices too raw and powerful to ignore, they are joining together to advocate for reform. My book, Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction, tells their stories.