Customer Reviews

The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream

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For people unfamiliar with the myth of the middle-class being able to manage a one house, 2 car, 2.5 kid, 2 income life, this 2004 book is a great choice. However, this is old news. Written by a sociologist and a phycologist, this reads like a great 30 page research paper that has been stretched into a 200 page book (and 100 pages of footnotes and index). The writers give a great overview, but focus almost entirely on the middle-class problems and the rude awakening that many are having since the middle-class women of the 1950s have begun entering the work force. Slim discussion on single parent households and even slimmer discussion on low-income families (especially women), who have been facing a crisis for at least 100 years longer.

(Spoiler) The idea is basically that middle-class women of the 1950s provided a vital support for their bread winner husbands and nurtured the children (discussion about single women is lacking). With the 1970s allowing women to enter the workforce, the cracks have been appearing due to the stresses on family/work life with many middle-class women now being forced to do 2 jobs without adequte pay for either and with men not barring their fair share. Combine it less assurance of life-time employment, benefits, and pensions, and you get the cracks in the American Dream. Well, that's just great. Any original solutions? What about low-income women who have been out in the workforce for much longer? What about single women? The authors muse on how great universal flex time, paid maternity leaves without risk of layoffs or geopardizing promotions, and government support would be. However, they don't really come up with any original or unique solutions to the problem. They just say that something has got to change or we'll be in trouble. They label many corporate initiatives such as low cost day care as being really pro-work (since parents are able to stay at work longer) but don't provide any better solutions. Leaving it up to others. An economic perspective would have helped. Overall, a good summary, but severely lacking.

I'm a sociology undergrad and was asked to read this book. While many sociology books that I've read are dry and difficult to get through, The Career Mystique is straightforward, with clear and easy-to-understand examples. More than that, this book forced me to look beyond the relative ease of the predicted, calculated, college life to what lerks beyond, namly trying to balance a career and a family. I think The Career Mystique clearly explains a problem that has been lurking within American society for the past few decades but until now remained unnamed. This is a must-read for anyone who will try to balance family life and a dual-earner relationship.

If you've ever felt that what you (and your husband) need to survive is a good old-fashioned wife, read this book! The Career Mystique explains how dramatic changes - including the revolutions in longevity and retirement - are at odds with rigid rules and expectations around work. It's clear, as authors Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling write, that we need entirely "new definitions of success at work and at home," new career paths for all stages of life, and much more flexibility. This terrific book will light the way.

As a college student, I was writing a paper for Social Psych on gender roles and how their impact upon society. While researching, I stumbled upon this book, which proved to be both the most valuable statistically and an actually interesting read. Roehling and Moen well document not just gender role differences, but also the myth that hard work, long hours, and continuous employment pay off in the 21st century. The Career Mystique has made me realize that traditional beliefs are standing in the way of creating a new, alternative workplace and career flexibilities.

A marvelous job by Roehling and Moen, and I bestow my highest regards upon them for tackling such a complex, yet pertinent societal issue.

This book well documents the realities of an out-of-date, false myth about working hard and achieving the american dream. Moen and Roehling provide detailed accounts of men and women struggling to stay afloat in their jobs, in their relationships, and in their daily lives. This book provides great insight into the mismatch between what we all believe we can achieve and the lockstep life course that we complacently follow.

The question of career path is on the minds of many people these days. Phyllis Moen does an excellent job of exploring these issues, and surfacing new ways of thinking about work and life. People who are trying to strike a balance in their own lives or trying to understand their own career paths will find Moen's book fascinating and helpful. People who are interested in the public policies that help to guide and govern work should also pay close attention to Moen's book. This is a winner on a critical topic.

The Career Mystique is a very readable and provocative updating of Betty Friedan's 1963 classic The Feminine Mysique. Professors Moen and Roehling virtually demolish the American myth that hard work, long years of continuous employment,and job commitment invariably lead to progress up the career ladder and economically secure retirement in the form of full-time leisure. No less notable are their prescriptions as to what should be done to reconcile career and retirement myths with today's realities.

This is a very discerning book about a serious contemporary problem that is not being looked at in any real way. I would equate this book's signigance with that of The Feminine Mystic by Betty Friedan. It shows us the impossibility of both partners achieving the American Dream of full time exciting, productive job and raising a family. Women have been led to believe they can have it all. In reality they really can't. The book is full of examples of families trying to balance roles of child care and jobs and still have time for themselves and for quality time with their kids. It talks about the expectations of employers will have to change, and a good deal more flexibility be offered to families in their working lives. Many good examples of how other countries are handling this crisis with flexible work hours, long maternity leaves, part time jobs of substance, etc. --all ways of helping families lead lives with less stress.

Researchers, students, and "just plain folk" alike have much to gain from this exploration of a topic that has relevance to virtually everyone. This approchable yet thorough discussion will help crystallize the impediments to leading a balanced life, and also point the way to possible solutions. Buy this book!