Our Treacherous Hearts: Why Women Let Men Get Their Way

So many things appear to have changed for women. In theory there's equal pay and opportunity, working mothers are no longer stigmatized, there's even been a woman prime minister. Yet in many deep and fundamental ways, little has altered. It is still women who take care of dependents, and who abandon or downgrade their careers to do so. Women still give over privilege and power to their male partners, and are happy - at least in the first instance - to make endless sacrifices for their children. Are women just making the best of a bad job? Did feminism underestimate women's satisfaction with the traditional roles, especially mothering? Or is it evidence of a deeper complicity in women, a collusion which means they don't really want to break with traditional roles? This book looks at women's collusion with what feminists call male oppression. Do the pleasure and joys that bind women to the home and family outweigh the anxieties and fears that drive them to lose their identities in their men and their children. The book is based on extensive interviews with women who discuss their feelings about men, children and work, allowing the author to explore the downside of women's investment in the family, the envy and competition which can erupt within the happy home, and the guilt, anxiety and frustration of women's daily lives.