To Work Or Not to Work?

The feminist generation gap gets a sharp appraisal in "The Feminine Mistake," the new book by Leslie Bennetts that questions why so many upscale young women are abandoning careers for children. Joan Walsh finds it a refreshing rebuttal to recent paens to motherhood, especially since Bennetts recognizes that   status seeking is behind at least some of the so-called "opt-out revolution."

 "Where a plump, well-fed wife used to be enough to prove a man's earning power," she notes, "now it's having a stay-at-home spouse, Pilatesized and pedicured to perfection, who flaunts her unused Ivy League professional degree like a big flashy diamond." In the end, Walsh finds it troubling that so much ammunition is expended in telling other women what to do. (More feminism stories.)