Confronting the abudant evidence that children suffer when their mothers leave them for the workplace, Mr. Robertson asks why it has nevertheless become the norm for mothers to work. The rise of feminism seems the obvious answer, but until the 1960s, the women's movement zealously fought against mother's being forced to abandon their homes for wages. The important change, Mr. Robertson discovers, has been society's view of work, which we once saw as a means of supporting family life but now pursue as an avenue of self-fulfillment. -- from fly leaf.