The Scholar and the Housewife

As The Scholar, Susan Whelan endeavored to further her education and realize her professional potential, working on Wall Street as an attorney. As The Housewife, she was deeply committed to guiding her children into adulthood with thought and compassion. Now, she gathers her experiences in The Scholar and The Housewife, a letter to her children that explains her struggle to fulfill not only the dreams of her parents and the goals of her youth, but at the same time, to be the mother that her own mother was to her. Set in the backdrop of Wall Street in the 1980s and 1990s, the author recounts the events and people that informed her choices and strengthened her beliefs. Global economic expansion, technology, and new financial instruments as well as advances in prenatal testing, early childhood development and preschool philosophies are among the topics she considers, all the while questioning goals and values, "walls and moral hazards" and causes and effects. Whelan thoughtfully considers the impact of working while trying to raise not only independent and educated children, but morally good children who will grow into the type of adults who will some day run our country, our businesses and society. In an ambitious yet easily digestible work, Whelan brings her experience as a mother, volunteer, lawyer, businesswoman and United Nations delegate to an honest discussion of the pressures on women, children and families today in America. In doing so, she offers some practical food for thought, particularly in the way of some provocative and compelling economic considerations.