
Welcome to Working Daughter, a community for women balancing eldercare, career, kids and life.
Are you struggling to care for an elderly parent or relative, hold down a job, and raise a family? Have you been searching for real world, practical answers on how to work with siblings, balance your time and have difficult conversations with your parents? You’ve come to the right place. Read this. Then sign up for one of our member programs.
Do you want to connect with people who understand what it’s like to be a caregiver? Join our private Facebook group here.
Founding Member of The Care Economy Business Council
Proud member of The Massachusetts Caregiver Coalition.


Working Daughter was founded by Liz O’Donnell in 2015. A longtime marketing executive, she turned her attention to helping working daughters balance eldercare and career after caring for her two parents. An award-winning writer, she recently published her second book, Working Daughter: A Guide to Caring for Your Aging Parents While Earning A Living, which Library Journal named one of the Best Books of 2019.
A recognized expert on balancing life and career, she has written about the challenges of working daughters in numerous publications including The Atlantic, Forbes, TIME, USA Today, WBUR and PBS’ Next Avenue. Her first book, Mogul, Mom & Maid: The Balancing Act of the Modern Woman, looked at the impact of women’s personal lives on their careers.
Liz is also active in her community and committed to supporting other women. Liz cofounded SheStarts, an organization for women entrepreneurs, and Women In Democracy-Dedham, a non-partisan group that seeks to engage more women in local politics.
About the book:
Working Daughter is a revelatory look at adults caring for their aging parents and how these unpaid family caregivers are trying to manage eldercare along with raising their children, maintaining relationships, and pursuing their careers. It shares Liz’s story – she was enjoying a fast-paced career in marketing and raising two children when both of her parents were diagnosed with terminal illnesses on the same day. In the challenges she faced and the choices she made, readers will learn how they can navigate their own caregiving experiences and prepare for when they are inevitably called on to care for their parents.
Working Daughter sparks the conversation we so desperately need to have about women and the workplace. With 10,000 people turning 65 every day and a shortage of caregivers predicted in the next few years, it’s time we talk about how family caregivers and their employers will face the impact of a rapidly aging society. This book provides a blueprint for women and a call-to-action for business leaders and policy makers. Working Daughter is for women who want straight talk and real advice about the challenges of eldercare, the choices they will need to make, the aspects of caregiving they can control, and that which they cannot. And finally, Working Daughter shows family caregivers how they can achieve the caregiver’s gain—the underreported but well-documented upside to caring for an aging parent.
Click here for inquiries about working with Liz or hiring her to speak to your organization.
Download Liz’s media kit here
Read Liz’s Atlantic article, “The Crisis Facing America’s Working Daughters” here.
