Through a series of focus group interviews and an analysis of the media and popular culture, Mothers Work examines the institution of motherhood and the arenas in which mothering occurs. Michelle Napierski-Prancl explores shared and divergent experiences, perspectives, lives, and challenges through the voices of experts on the topic of motherhood: the mothers themselves. Mothers Work analyzes how mothers feel about themselves, each other, and the culture that situates them against one another.

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In this volume, Napierski-Prancl (Russell Sage College) uses in-depth focus group research from a diverse group of mothers, including those working in the paid labor force and those who are stay-at-home moms, to share these women's experiences of, perspectives on, and understandings of motherhood. She combines this data with an evaluation of relevant media to broadly assess the institution of motherhood in American society. A unique aspect of the book is that Naperski-Pranci intersperses her own experiences as a working mother with the voices of the mothers she met. This helps to connect her experiences to the women she interviewed, along with understanding her own positionality. Foregrounding the voices of interviewees, the author challenges the cultural assumption of the “Mommy Wars” and uses a sociological perspective to demonstrate how women’s similar and different experiences of mothering can be used to foster structural change that values women’s work in both the paid and unpaid labor force. She ultimately argues that change can be driven by mothers themselves.

Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.