Rating: 
Summary: Creating A Life
Review: "Creating A Life" is a courageous and thoughtful book, which challenges conventional wisdoms across the spectrum. Drawing on sobering statistics and moving interviews with successful career women, many of them celebrities, Sylvia Hewlett calls into question whether the "breakthrough generation" really was able "to have it all" --as they claimed women could. What she found in her own generation of 50-somethings has poignant overtones -- talented women who pursued "high-altitude" careers, assuming that they would be able to turn to love and family later, were often mistaken. What they found was that it was far more difficult to find a mate and have a child once they passed thirty-five, notwithstanding ideology, hype and medical miracles. What Hewlett advises the younger generation of women is don't wait: find a man before you become a thirty-something and have children before your fertility declines and complications rise. The problem with that advice, she recognizes, is the price that women who try to combine work and family early in the careers have to pay in the job market --being consigned to "the Mommy-track." It is this book's combination of confessions of unrequited maternity by the first feminist generation and cautionary warnings to the adolescents and twenty-somethings who still think they can have it all that has touched a raw nerve and detonated strong reactions and angry debates. Overlooked in the controversy over the book's implications for individual women is its central point: the importance of changing corporate culture and public policy so that more women can have both rewarding work and satisfying personal lives. Hewlett's proposals for a new paradigm in family policy that would create a user-friendly flexibility are thought-provoking and far-reaching. If adopted, they could make it possible for many more women --and men-- "to have it all," and for our society not to waste precious human resources. Her European examples show that it can be done, if a society decides that it is important to make family a priority --which we say we do in theory but rarely do in practice. At bottom, this is a policy book and Hewlett has put the issue of family policy back on the table. "Creating A Life" should be required reading for all men and women who have thought about creating a life --and even more for those who have yet to do so. It is an important book for all of us to read.
Rating:
Summary: I'll have a decaf soy latte and pick a baby or two, I'm busy
Review: An interesting read but I can save future readers some time. Babies are not found at the office or as a bonus for closing the deal.
Rating:
Summary: A Book that Every Young Person Should Read on Life's Choices
Review: Finally, someone has the courage to tell the painful truth about the challenges professional women face in the United States. This is a well-researched and thoughtful analysis of the hard, cold facts: many professional women are not having children. The author is providing a service to young women and the country by revealing the stories of so many women who have struggled to have both career and family. Surely, society loses out if we do not enable women to both contribute in their professional lives and to be happy in their personal lives, which may mean finding a mate and raising children. This book presents a challenge not just for women, but for our society to ensure that we provide the supports necessary so that no one has to choose between their job and a life. Creating a life is an eye-opener and a passionate call for reforms that can benefit all of us, but especially all our children, who are the future of this country.
Rating: 
Summary: LADIES!! DON'T LISTEN TO THIS [person]
Review: I asked my OBGYN about this book. He laughed and told me that one third of his practice is first time mothers over 40, and two thirds are first time mothers over 35. I got pregnant (unplanned) at 35. I guess that "fertility falling off a cliff" jazz is a little untrue. (didn't Ms. Hewlett have a child at 51? HMMMM) This woman is NOT a doctor and has no idea what she is talking about. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Methinks the naysayers protest too much...
Review: Many readers have gotten so angry about this book, calling it un-feminist and saying it's pushing the philosophy that becoming a mother and living a "traditional" life should be a priority for every woman. This is simply not true. Clearly, the intended audience for this book is the group of professional women out there who *do* intend, perhaps vaguely, to have children at some point. This book is for them: it addresses the biological realities common to all women, and corrects the notion that conceiving a baby late in life will come easily to most of them. It's saying that for these women, thoughtful planning is crucial. Any way you slice it, that's sound advice. Forget how you personally feel about Sylvia Hewlett: the science is indisputable, and the science says that for every 46-year-old movie star who manages to conceive, there are many others who will try and be disappointed. I know from my own experience as a relatively young mother that there are many women out there who have been devastated by infertility directly related to their having, simply put, waited too long. For them, this book would have been invaluable. For those of you who are happily childfree, good for you. But why are you reading this book? It is not written for you, and your anger over its "implications" is uninformed. Feminism is about giving women choices, remember? Yes, even the choice to become a mother.
Rating:
Summary: LADIES!! DON'T LISTEN TO THIS [person]
Review: The modern views of Sylvia Hewlett's are obviously presented throughout her novel "Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children." This novel illustrates and accurately captivates the struggles of a woman in the 21st century by exploring and the heartbreak that accompanies it.
As a young female, growing up in a single parent household, I am able to get a first hand look at the sacrifices my mother had to endure to pursue her professional career while raising a child. Wanting to pursue a professional career myself, the issues of having children arose while reading this novel.
I am able to say that this novel is useful to me, and to any young woman wanting more out of life. This is an excellent read, portraying real issues that are to come in the near future. This book is recommended to women who illustrate a need for a professional life, and their counterparts who support them.
Rating:
Summary: If you want baby, easy!
Review: The world is over-populated. Please be open and learn from the Europeans: adopt desserted babies in South America, Asia, Africa and now one more source (caused by the American government): Iraq. Empty middle-age? So much to busy with! Be a loving person.
Rating:
Summary: If you want baby, easy!
Review: The world is over-populated. Please be open and learn from the Europeans: adopt desserted babies in South America, Asia, Africa and now one more source (caused by the American government): Iraq. Empty middle-age? So much to busy with! Be a loving person.
Rating: 
Summary: Influential but flawed
Review: This book has many biases and flaws. Other reviewers have already gone into detail on these points, so I won't belabor them. I gave this book 2 stars because it created huge waves when released: was the subject of many magazine articles and television shows in the following months. So, if you are like me and enjoy keeping on top of books that have helped shape the news, note that this was one of the most most talked-about books of 2002. That being said, my other point is this: there is a business in making people scared and prophesizing doom and gloom. Does a woman's fertility decline as she ages? Sure. But it varies wildly from person to person. Do you really want to put your money towards trying to scare the wits out of high acheiving North American women, making them feel even more pressured than they already do? I, for one, would rather not.
Rating:
Summary: Influential but flawed
Review: This book has many biases and flaws. Other reviewers have already gone into detail on these points, so I won't belabor them. I gave this book 2 stars because it created huge waves when released: was the subject of many magazine articles and television shows in the following months. So, if you are like me and enjoy keeping on top of books that have helped shape the news, note that this was one of the most most talked-about books of 2002. That being said, my other point is this: there is a business in making people scared and prophesizing doom and gloom. Does a woman's fertility decline as she ages? Sure. But it varies wildly from person to person. Do you really want to put your money towards trying to scare the wits out of high acheiving North American women, making them feel even more pressured than they already do? I, for one, would rather not.
| 
