Betty Friedan announced the end of the family. Melissa Benn argues that there has been a revolution in women's lives, but not as Friedan had prophesied; whilst women are supposed to have it all - work, children, family - there is a yawning gap between women's experience of being mothers and political, policy, societal perceptions of motherhood. Herself a mother and writing from very immediate experience, Melissa Benn is exposing realities which will make us all think anew about our expectations of women today.