Caitlin Flanagan

Caitlin Flanagan (born 1961) is an American writer and social critic. A former staff writer at The New Yorker, she is a contributor to The Atlantic. Her book To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife was published by Little, Brown in 2006. Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Flanagan holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Art History from the University of Virginia. Before becoming a writer, Flanagan was an English teacher and college counselor at the Harvard-Westlake school in North Hollywood, California. Flanagan works from home and employs a nanny and a housekeeper. Some of her essays underscore the emotional rewards and social value of a traditional housewife's role. Consequently, Joan Walsh of Salon has criticized her for misrepresenting her life choices, and then condemning other women for not choosing the more traditional lifestyle. She has appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report and Real Time with Bill Maher. In 2012 she published a book about teenage girls, Girl Land.