Customer Reviews

Getting It Right: How Working Mothers Successfully Take Up the Challenge of Life, Family, and Career

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Getting it Right offered me exactly what I was looking for at just the right time. It gave me insights into what other career-minded mothers who strive for better balance in their lives are going through. The book combines research findings and helpful step by step guides and self-help questionnaires that gave me a great new perspective. Best of all it gave real, hard, current figures about Stanford women MBA's in the workplace. I was amazed to read that 47% are working part time. This is the fifth book I've bought and read in hopes that I would be able to resolve my conflicting feelings about work and raising children. And unlike so many of the books about getting it right with respect to family and work this book has absolutely no religious slant. Thank God. Real research and really insightful ways to analyze your current desires and needs as they relate to balance. I highly recommend this one!

In this book, Lorraine Zappert has provided a comprehensive analysis of mother's role in the workplace. Through quantitative research with hundreds of women who have received their MBA's from Stanford University, Zappert provides both research-informed analysis and vignettes from mothers who have made a wide range of choices as applied to child bearing and raising. The book contains both useful tips and items to ponder when making important decisions concerning career paths.

My biggest complaint about this book was that it sometimes drifted into the area of fantasy for most working mothers. Understandably, the research focused upon moms with a very high income potential, but professionals come in many career areas and have a wide range of incomes, and many cannot afford the type of "solutions" suggested by the book, such as a full-time, live-in nanny.

However, I do feel that the book provided very useful information and is an important resource.

I liked this book, but I guess I was looking for something more. I was hoping for a few more suggestions on how to be a successful working mother. The biggest thing that I took from this book are that there are advantages and disadvantages to every role that you can have as a mom. (Working mothers sometimes feel that they aren't parenting enough, stay at home moms sometimes feel isolated, and moms who work part time sometimes feel like they aren't doing either thing well).

I thought that it was interesting, but I guess that it just reinforces that trying to balance work and family is something that still generates a lot more questions than it does answers.

Zappert's survey-based research provides no new insights or solutions for working moms. Basically, it's "work or don't as you feel comfortable, and outsource as many non-parenting tasks as you can."

This book came at a perfect time when I was feeling conflictual about can I be a good manager and professional and still be a good mom. I work as a manager in the mental health field specializing in family therapy. When conflicts began in the workplace about can working moms do it all, I became outraged. I initially was permitted to work from home or bring my two year old to work with me on fridays when it was quiet so as to ease the childcare crunch. Recently this was taken away and I was told that ir was not "professional". I work at a mental health clinic and supervise therapist who work with families. This was one place that I thought would be flexible as to working moms. My reading on working moms were helpful yet I was looking for a book that addresses the "professional" aspects of being a working manager mom. I am the only manager in my division of a large organization and have been told that maybe this position is not for someone with children. I can't think of a better person to understand the stresses of "family life" and be able to offer reality checks to staff who work with families with even greater stressors of mental illness, abuse, poverty and no support.

A must read for all human resourse and managers whether they have children or not!