By host Tom Ashbrook:

Terry Martin Hekker has a head-spinning personal story that illuminates a stubborn national story about women, work and home.

Twenty-five years ago, when feminism was sending American women piling into the workforce, Terry Hekker stayed home. She had five kids and celebrated the stay-at-home life, becoming a kind a national spokeswoman for “staying home” as a choice. Then, on her 40th wedding anniversary, Terry’s lifelong husband left her for a younger woman, handed her divorce papers, and life turned brutal.

Now Terry Hekker is warning a new generation of young women opting out of work — be careful. A career, not a diamond, may be a girl’s best friend.

Hear about women, work, home and the long-term consequences of choices made.

Guests:

Terry Hekker, former stay-at-home mother, she wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times 25 years ago about her happy life as a homemaker. An update appeared this month titled “Paradise Lost” (Domestic Division).;
Ellen Goodman, syndicated columnist for The Boston Globe.