Leaving the Ladder Down
Dolly Jones
Some books about working motherhood offer one person’s story. Others offer a neat formula. Leaving the Ladder Down is valuable because it does neither. Dolly Jones draws on conversations with more than 200 women, bringing together a wide range of professions, backgrounds, family structures and approaches to combining work with motherhood.
The result is less like a traditional instruction manual and more like an extensive collection of lived experience. Jones explores the practical and emotional realities of returning to work: finding childcare, managing guilt, rebuilding confidence and creating routines that can withstand the unpredictability of family life. The stories do not produce one definitive answer—and that is precisely the point. What works brilliantly for one household may be completely unrealistic for another.
The book is optimistic without pretending that the combination is easy. It makes space for the logistical chaos and harder days, while also celebrating the satisfaction many women find in continuing to pursue professional ambitions alongside raising children. Motherhood is not presented simply as an obstacle to work, but as something that can build resilience, perspective and capability.
At times, the number of different voices makes the book feel more like a collection than one tightly structured argument. However, this is also its greatest strength: readers can recognise themselves in some stories and discover entirely different possibilities in others.
The Working Parenthood perspective
At Working Parenthood, we often use case studies to explore how different families make life work. This book offers a real-life library of them.
You are not looking for another family’s model to copy perfectly. You are looking for one idea, arrangement or mindset that might work in your own circumstances.
With so many different experiences represented, who knows which story might contain exactly the idea you need?