In my twenties, I thought sex and career would solve everything. At thirty, I thought marriage would. Later I tried motherhood, therapy, and then divorce. At forty, I decided to renovate.

With all the choices available to today’s women, why don’t they more feel fulfilled? What Women Want Next is Susan Maushart’s meditation—by turns profound and laugh-out-loud funny—on that central dilemma of postfeminist life. At one point she had it all, so why wasn’t she happy? With What Women Want Next, Maushart combines research with personal history in a dynamic attempt to answer this question.

Feminism may have led women to life’s banquet table, but the meal they make of it is up to them. How to balance life and work, sex and sleep, child care and self-care? And why has women’s guilt—that glass ceiling of the soul—become the biggest barrier they face? What Women Want Next is the first book to look at the spectrum of a woman’s life and attempt to demonstrate how she can shape her own destiny throughout all its stages.