Bennetts, Leslie 1949-

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Bennetts, Leslie 1949-

PERSONAL:

Born 1949; married Jeremy Gerard (a journalist); children: two.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Office—Vanity Fair, Condé Nast Publications, 4 Times Sq., 7th Fl., New York, NY 10036.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist. Philadelphia Bulletin, Philadelphia, PA, former reporter; New York Times, New York, NY, former staff reporter; Vanity Fair, New York, NY, contributing editor, 1988—.

WRITINGS:

The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much?, Voice/Hyperion (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Town & Country, Columbia Journalism Review, New York Magazine, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, More, House & Garden, Worth, Family Life, Parents, Child, Parenting, Nation, Woman's Day, Tango, Modern Bride, and People.

SIDELIGHTS:

Leslie Bennetts is a journalist who has written stories that range from movie star profiles to industrial pollution, and from pedophile priests to U.S. terrorism policies. Her 2007 book, The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much?, is a "well-written book [that] takes an unbiased look at women's roles and the effects of stay-at-home motherhood," according to Library Journal contributor Anita N. Jennings. Despite such an objective approach, the book drew fire from some women's groups, angry at the book's conclusions. Bennetts noted her motivation for writing the controversial book in an article for the Huffington Post: "I wrote The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? because the typical reporting on the job-versus-family issue was so biased and incomplete…. Why wasn't anyone telling the truth about how much they were sacrificing—or what the consequences could be?" Bennetts further explained, "My goal … was to provide women with what I saw as one-stop-shopping that would help close this information gap. My goal was to gather into a single neat package all the financial, legal, sociological, psychological, medical, labor-force, child-rearing and other information necessary for them to protect themselves."

Guardian contributor Suzanne Goldenberg called Bennetts's book a "rejoinder to those who have been cheering on the opt-out revolutionaries, the young women of privilege and means who have given up their jobs to stay home with the children." Goldenberg continued: "Bennetts sees those women as dangerously misguided. Husbands are unreliable." According to the argument, depending on a husband for full family support undermines women's financial security: divorce (more than half of marriages end in dissolution), loss of employment, and even death all put women without careers at risk. Bennetts goes against much of the current thought that the feminist revolution oversold independence and that indeed women cannot have it all. Thus, the opt-out trend became a popular one, especially among young women of a certain socioeconomic class. Bennetts's book sends a clarion warning to these women. "Bennetts offers the stay-at-home mothers a challenge: give up your idealised views of the perfect marriage and the perfect job and embrace chaos," Goldenberg wrote.

The Feminine Mistake met with generally favorable reviews. Writing on Salon.com, Joan Walsh noted: "Bennetts' book captures so much so well—the perils of dumping your career to stay home with your kids; the joy of having work you love and excel at." Booklist contributor Vanessa Bush felt that by "allowing women to tell their own stories of economic abandonment," the author cautions women about the results of their relinquishing financial security by giving up their jobs. Similarly, a Publishers Weekly reviewer observed, "Through impressive research and interviews, … Bennetts shows that women simply cannot afford to quit their day jobs." New York Times Book Review critic Eugenie Allen was more equivocal in her assessment: "Bennetts is right to dread an exodus of accomplished women from the work force. But this book is so unwieldy, and so polarizing, that it is unlikely to convince many stay-at-home mothers to return to work." Philadelphia Inquirer contributor Karen Heller termed The Feminine Mistake "an important new book that will win her few friends among traditionalists." However, such a controversy was welcomed by Miami Herald writer Cindy Krischer Goodman, who concluded that Bennetts's book "warns women of the financial perils of dumping a career, [and] is likely to spark arguments on a subject that draws on strong emotions. But for the financial well-being of families, I consider it a fight worth waging."