In Broken Patterns, Anita Harris reveals how a powerful mother-daughter dynamic has shaped the experience of professional women in America. Using a unique approach that integrates personal interviews and historical and psychological research, she examines the complex relationships women share with their mothers and grandmothers and considers how those relationships and society's changing attitudes affect women's roles. Tracing the roles of working women from the Colonial Era to the present, Harris describes a powerful push-pull dynamic between mothers and daughters. The book suggests that women will continue to move forward--and take steps back--to make their own way, each incorporating and surpassing the hopes and dreams of generations past to create a new feminine identity.