Evolving from a Series of Front-Page Articles Susan Chira wrote for the New York Times, A Mother's Place at once reveals the devastating distortions that have wrongly convinced many women that "good mothers stay at home" and demonstrates how women can alter convention and defy the experts by striking a balance that best suits them and their children.

Reviewing the latest scientific research, Chira shows that, contrary to popular belief, children of working mothers turn out just as well as those raised by stay-at-home mothers. She explains how media, courts, and politicians distort this data to suit their own agendas. The reality that most experts have chosen to ignore, she argues, is that a woman's happiness, satisfaction, and emotional state have a much more profound effect on her children than whether or not she works. With passion and compassion, she presents a new vision of motherhood, one that offers reassurance while insisting that all of us -- mothers, fathers, and society -- fulfill our obligations to our children.