By now, we've all heard about - and sick to death of - the 2004 New York Times Magazine's cover story "The Opt-Out Revolution" that claimed that America's most educated women are choosing motherhood over careers. In fact, "opting out," "off-ramping" and "getting on the mommy track" have all become part of the popular lexicon to describe women who leave their jobs to stay at home with children.
Speaking from the vantage point of someone who is both a parent and a feminist activist, author Amy Richards in Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself
Amy also covers topics that concern women facing motherhood - the truth about biological clocks and the trends toward extending fertility, parenting with nature and nurturing in mind, our relationship with our mothers, the role of fathers in parenting, and what feminism’s relationship to motherhood is.
This summer as the kids play by the pool - or as you take your lunch break at the office - grab a quiet spot and dig into Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself with MOTHERS.
To read an excerpt of Opting In, go to The Drive to Procreate: Reexamining the Biological Clock at Feminist.com.
With Independence Day just around the corner, join MOTHERS, the Mothers of the Revolution, and the Daughters of Liberty to explore 
by Cokie Roberts.
by Elizabeth Soutter Schwarzer, a former Congressional Press Secretary now living in a world of bad morning sickness, sleep deprivation, twisted toddler logic, and mommy friends who dye their hair with Grecian 5 Hair color for men. (It's cheap and you can paint it on your widow's peak while the kids are in the tub.) It's got everything: haddock-love, nightmares featuring Glynnis Johns, the occasional f-bomb and an answer to the age-old question of what ABBA must've seen on acid. Oh, and there's a lot of barfing. You can read more at 
by Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile, who spoke to mothers of every stripe working, stay-at-home, part-time and found a surprisingly similar trend in their interviews. As one mom put it, "Am I happy? The word that describes me best is challenged." 
of surprising, thought-provoking, guilty confessions the moms they interviewed hadn't told anyone else. These are the private thoughts that every mom has and can relate to. 
by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor. We can all relate that friends, family, colleagues, the UPS delivery guy are all a trove of advice when you have a baby. In busy mom-friendly short essays, 
. Whether it's planning easy outings that are fun for both of you, dishing the dirt on preschool TV, or perfecting the art of the play date, readers will find advice, anecdotes, and a reassuring sense of camaraderie to help them survive during each hilarious, frustrating, and amazing moment.
(fiction) by Meg Wolitzer. This novel is about a group of four New York friends who past decade has been largely defined by marriage and motherhood. Educated and reared to believe that they would conquer the world, they then left jobs as corporate lawyers, investment bankers, and film scouts to stay home with their babies. What was meant to be a temporary leave of absence has lasted a decade. Now, at age forty, with the halcyon days of young motherhood behind them and without professions to define them, Amy, Jill, Roberta, and Karen face a life that is not what they were brought up to expect but seems to be the one they have chosen. 
by Louise Kaplan. This closely observed and lyrically written exploration of the journey each baby makes from oneness with his mother to his "second birth" as a unique psychological being is being reissued to tie in with the release of Kaplan's 
This month MOTHERS recommends 
by eminent social scientist Riane Eisler who shows that the great problems of our time - poverty, inequality, war, terrorism, and environmental degradation - are due to flawed economic systems that set the wrong priorities and misallocate resources. 
I invite you to join me in exploring this new perspective on economics.
With talent shortages looming over the next decade, how can companies attract and retain the large number of professional women who are forced off the career highway? 
, Sylvia Ann Hewlett documents the successful efforts of a group of cutting-edge global companies to retain talented women and reintegrate them if they left. 
When it comes to caregiving, MOTHERS has always been for a more progressive point of view. We've never been partisan, but we've grown impatient with the lack of discussion about caregivers and family issues in the current election.
by Bernie Horn.
In 2008, MOTHERS and many of you may be looking to making a difference in the world. With that in mind, our first MOTHERS Book Bag choice of the new year is Bill Clinton's 
I’ve included one picture that says it all. It captures the beautiful face and bright eyes of a Cambodian orphan born with HIV. Basil was ten months old when this photo was taken. His mother died when he was only one month old, and her doctor arranged for him to be taken in by New Hope for Cambodian Children, an organization that cares for HIV-positive orphans and other vulnerable children. 
On December 10, 2007, Bill Clinton appeared on the CBS Early Show and talked to Harry Smith about 
