Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children

by Sylvia Ann Hewlett

Book Overview

40% of women earning $50,000 or more a year are childless at age 45--and these women have not chosen to be childless. A highly controversial book about American women & the bitter paradoxes of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786867663
• ISBN13: 9780786867660
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Miramax Books
• Length: 334 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Sensational Reading

I recently saw a story in an entertainment magazine about Alexis Stewart, Martha Stewart's daughter, who is over 40 and is now spending $10,000 to $20,000 a month on fertility treatments trying to have a baby (also read her story on Oprah's website). I had no idea that it was that hard for older women to get pregnant--and that fertility treatments are expensive, painful, and usually don't work, a fact that is confirmed in this book. I also didn't know that donor eggs from a super-desireable donor (eg. someone who looks like a fashion model) can run as much as $20,000. Regretably, many career women wanted to have families but never had the time to find a husband because they were always working or on business trips. (I can see why Carly Fiorina isn't married) Some of these women are really sorry that they are going to die with no children. Ms Hewlett describes how incredibly hard it is for older career women to marry, because all of the desireable men out there want young, pretty wives who aren't working 60 hours a week and who have more to talk about than how much they are going to make on their next deal. Hewlett suggests that women need to start looking for husbands as soon as possible, because if you're already 35 and you are trying to have a kid before you're 40, you are dealing with an impossible timetable, like something out of "Saw III". Actually I don't see why some of these rich women can't just try to find a Kevin Federline type, who is a deadbeat but is also an apparently devoted father. I'm sure there would be plenty of willing candidates out there.

An eye-opener

I found this a fascinating book, and a real eye-opener. First, I want to refer to several of the most recent reviews of this book I just read. No offense - but I think these reviews were written by bitter women, probably unmarried and childless. If a woman chooses to be single and childless, so be it, and Ms. Hewlett indicates so! But for those who would like the fulfillment of having children in their lives, Ms. Hewlett provides them with valuable information, that is not spoken of in our society.We live in a society in which women and men are both expected to work crazy, long work-weeks, and thus, it's hard for both sexes to have a private life. What Ms. Hewlett does is raise awareness that it is not so easy for women to conceive after a certain age. As a 27-year-old married woman in graduate school, who plans to have a career and children, I found her information extremely informative. I will make a knowledgable decision when to plan children and how to plan my career, with help from information in her book. I also hope that neither my husband nor I will need to be in the office so long that we'll forget what I believe is most important in life - Love, and significant relationships.To all the men and women out there: don't forget your personal lives!!! That doesn't mean you have to be married and/or have children, that's each individual's choice. But remember that at the end of the day, and at the end of our lives, which in this crazy world can come at any time - don't be alone.

Eye Opener for Thirty-Something Professional Women

This book was very insightful and based on real-life research. I am thirty-one and have spent the last ten years focused solely on my career as a professional. This book opened my eyes to the fact that I really don't have forever to start a family. The book follows several successful women in a variety of fields and discusses the challenges they face with finding a spouse and starting a family as they get older. These women tell their tales of how they basically woke up one day and realized they were forty and single. Many of them faced personal challenges as they drained all options to get pregnant and were unsuccessful. This book is definitely an interesting read.

Changed my Life

This book has changed my life. At 28, already a "high achieving" woman according to the book, I have rejected the notion of children, using my career as my weapon to keep those thoughts at bay.This book came to me just at the right time for me to realize that I may miss out on something if I don't look at what I really, truly want, and build a life outside of my job, before it's too late!This has also given me the new desire to continue being a high achieving woman, and continue the journey that my mother and her mother began. To be an example of a strong, career-successful woman, with a family, to help mold the world so that younger women don't have to feel that it's a choice. We can have it all, we just need to keep fighting!

A great read

I found this an extraordinarily fascinating, challenging and engrossing treatment of a topic which I thought I was pretty familiar with. But this book placed the challenges facing professional women in a new and much broader context, and showed the interplay of so many facets. I also found some of the interviews gripping, and came away with a much deeper appreciation of the choices and decisions young professional women face.