The book obviously is built on the author's personal experiences; she described her grandmother's tragic life after her grandfather left his wife for a mistress that he later married. The grandmother ended up depending on her sisters' husbands for survival. Bennetts' mother gave up an acting career for husband and family, but when the mother asked her husband to take over financial support of her mother, he refused. Afterwards, the mother found a job and made success in her profession a top priority. For Bennetts, these stories must have reinforced all those childhood impressions of feminine mistakes. Bennetts' mother gave her a copy of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique and told her, "Read this." She claims that the book changed her life from that point forward.

Clearly Bennetts' goal in writing her book seems to be to provide all possible evidence about the difficulties and penalties that women face when they leave a career to stay at home. She views women as ill-informed about practical realities. She also marshals arguments to try to convince women that work is more than a paycheck; she documents ways that women are healthier and happier when they have the gratification of earning money and the status of a professional position. She totally ignores the rewards of marriage and motherhood.

Bennetts warns women against dropping out of the workforce –– not even to scale back to be home when their children are infants. She recounts story after story of women who did just that and ended up in dire financial circumstances. In fact, the author turns quite shrill; she ends up picturing men as uniformly unreliable jerks. She also seems determined that everyone will be convinced that her way is best. She ignores the fact that women can have different values and different perspectives. As far as she is concerned, there is only one way for a woman, the Bennetts way. Anyone who ignores or dismisses financial concerns when considering love and marriage is stupid in Bennetts' view. Anyone whose top priorities are not career and financial security is even more stupid.

As Bennetts points out the truth about what women sacrifice and the consequences that they might face, she leaves women feeling foolish and guilty about making their husband and children their priority. One woman reacted to the book by saying it is "an indictment of my whole life as I currently live it." Another said she "shrieked with anger at all sides of the issues of this book." Bennetts has no sympathy for such women; they "don't let evidence get in the way of their pre-conceived biases." The author has no understanding of women's self-doubt, nor does she realize that she adds weight to the burgeoning pile of books warning women about how they mess up their lives whatever choice they make.

Clearly the "mommy wars" are a long way from over. Books like Feminine Mistake just add fuel to the feud.