On page 41 in The Way We Never Were, the author quotes Daveid Blankenhorn as saying, "employed women do not a family make..." and he goes on to differentiate between the individualistic goals associated with the workplace as opposed to the collective goals of the family. Although I agree with his differentiation of goals, I disagree with his statement that working women "do not a family make." My personal experience was one of a working father and a stay at home mother, but I do not consider my family any better or worse than those of my friends whose mothers worked, or those who lived with only one parent. Generalizations are dangerous when one is trying to describe such vast number of people. Everyone's own personal family experience will differ from another's. There will be good and bad in every experience, and depending upon an individual's personality, values, and environment, as well as other factors will determine whether or not they experienced their family to be a supportive unit. I don't think you pinpoint one aspect-whether or not a mother stayed at home with her children or she worked-as the determining factor of the satisfaction of family life. There is an endless amount of factors involved in the relationships among one's family.