Having It All

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Women aren’t getting a fair deal— t work or at home. Whether you’re in “the squeeze” already or just starting your career path, this book gives you the data to understand why and the tools to change it. The demands on working mothers and professional women are unsustainable. We’re expected to build ambitious careers, fight for workplace equality, maintain equality at home, raise engaged children, and somehow find time for ourselves. And when we inevitably fall short? We’re told to try harder and wake up earlier. In Having It All, Wharton economist Dr. Corinne Low uses data to prove what you’ve always suspected: the system is rigged against women. Then she gives you the tools to rewrite the rules. Through clear, readable (and funny) prose, Dr. Low explains HOW we got here and WHY things feel so unsustainable. Then she offers a simple framework—along with loads of tools and scripts—to help you reclaim your time and happiness. Inside, you’ll learn: • Word-for-word scripts for asking for a raise, renegotiating with your partner, and setting boundaries • Why women negotiate differently than men — and how to use it to your advantage • A framework for career decisions: when to push, when to pivot, when to pause • How to evaluate whether your relationship is a good deal • How to structure your time, money, and energy around what you value Dr. Low blends rigorous research with personal experience, including her own story of burning out as a working mother and rebuilding her life on her own terms. In the tradition of Fair Play and Cribsheet, consider this the essential economics textbook for life as a woman—but hopefully, a little more fun. This book asks the question: What would it look like if we stopped assuming the problems in women’s lives are caused by women’s choices, and started looking instead at the structural, economic, and biological factors that are forcing and constraining those choices in the first place? And what if, in doing so, we could learn to negotiate new deals that don’t leave us feeling so depleted? In the same way that behavioral psychologists like Daniel Kahneman and Dan Ariely have sought to understand the hidden factors and biases that cause people to make mistakes at the bank or the grocery store, economist Corinne Low investigates how the most significant decisions in women’s lives are shaped by overlooked internal and external factors. The result is a book that offers readers a guide to getting the best deal for their lives and careers in a world full of constraints. It is also a call to action for firms, policymakers, and anyone else with an iota of power to get to work on the tough job of changing these constraints instead of the easier one we seem to default to: criticizing women. This book is not about optimizing. Women are already optimized. Consider it the essential economic textbook for life as a woman—but hopefully, a little more fun.