Moderated by Meghan Daum, Los Angeles Times columnist

Forty years ago, the term “stay at home mom” would have been considered redundant. Twenty years ago, “housewife” had become a dirty word and the ability to balance family and career was seen as an extension of female self-respect and empowerment. Today, some women are rejecting the 1980s-era notion of “having it all” by dropping out of the workforce–sometimes permanently–to raise their children. In her book The Feminine Mistake, journalist Leslie Bennetts suggests that women have been oversold on the idea they must choose between being good workers and being good mothers. Using extensive data, she suggests that women who stop working even temporarily sacrifice much more than financial stability.

If there’s a fictional companion to The Feminine Mistake, it’s Meg Wolitzer’s The Ten Year Nap. The story of four highly educated friends who put their careers on hold a decade earlier when they had children, Wolitzer’s novel explores how and why these women still haven’t gone back to work despite their children being school aged. In a lively and provocative discussion, these two writers–both mothers themselves–will talk about the complications and contradictions of “having it all” and the role that feminism does (or doesn’t) play in the lives of contemporary women.