The Wife Drought, by Annabel Crabb

The saying that behind every successful man stands a woman just about sums up Annabel Crabb’s contention that working women need wives in order to match men’s success. Emphatic and repetitive, the book certainly proves its point. A plethora of stats no doubt support the argument, but become tedious despite Crabb’s bright and breezy writing style. That Australian society has made very little progress on this issue, compared with other western nations, is undeniable and depressing. Crabb doesn’t really come up with anything new and offers little in the way of practical solutions to overcome the entrenched social conditioning that maintains the status quo. She argues that change is necessary for the benefit of men, as well as women as all have more to gain than lose. But there is a sense that she is only preaching to the converted.