Roundup: Shani Orgad and Heading Home
We kicked off Women’s History Month with Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality, by Shani Orgad. In case you missed them, here’s a roundup of this week’s blog posts and other media coverage related to Orgad and her work.
Enter our Women’s History Month book giveaway for a chance to win a copy of Heading Home.
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In the News
“Realising they had sacrificed their careers for their families was a source of deep pain for many of the women.”
From the London School of Economics and Political Science (2.04.2019)
When Dr Shani Orgad, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE, was dropping off her children at their local school gate one morning, a mother of one of her children’s classmates asked her if she wanted to join her for a coffee. When Dr Orgad thanked her and said she couldn’t because she had to get to work, the mother replied: “you poor thing.”
Dr Orgad says: “I was puzzled by this reaction; I wondered why she felt sorry for me.” She became curious about women like this mother, who had given up years of education, training, and successful careers, seemingly to embrace full-time motherhood.
Read more. . .
I’m a working mom. Often, that feels like the whole of my identity. I work—as an editor at HBR. And I mother—two children, now aged 9 and 10. Yes, I have a husband and friends and outside interests. But the vast majority of my time, energy, and focus is spent on two things: job, kids. And if I’m honest, trying to excel in both realms is a constant, draining, exasperating struggle. Can I be a star employee and a sterling parent at the same time? Should I balance or integrate? Lie low or lean in? Aim to “have it all” or settle for “good enough”?
Millions of women ask themselves similar questions daily, and there are no easy answers. Yet analyses of and advice on working motherhood (or, rather, of moms who work outside the home, since mothering is, of course, its own job) continue to pour in.
Read more. . .
From the CUP Archives
Go “Behind the Scenes” with this guest post from Sharon Webber-Zvik, who discusses her approach and the symbolism behind the design of The Operator— the image used on our Fall 2018 seasonal catalog and the cover of Heading Home.
Orgad discusses Heading Home and the disappointment professional women feel in deciding between their careers and motherhood .
In this interview, Orgad delves into the source of her desire to research and write about motherhood and work and discusses what she found most surprising and challenging about her findings.
In this excerpt, Orgad illustrates how and why mothers use and endorse popular constructions of motherhood through personal and public stories to project an image of satisfaction.
