“The truth is despite the hard work and juggling required to keep the different facets of the frantic life afloat, the "superwoman"has one marvelous compensation. Being busy and being seen to be busy lets you off the hook. Buys you a way out of all aspects of your many roles you secretly despiselike cleaning cupboardsor entertaining your husband's business friends. When you combine wife, mother, career and all, each role become the perfect excuse for avoiding the worst aspects of the other.” WayDifferentHardMotherWomenWorkPerfectCareersRolesWifeWorstHard WorkTruth IsHusbandAspectBusyExcuseDespiteEntertainingMarvelousAvoidingHookCleaningCompensationFacetsYour HusbandFranticJugglingBeing BusySuperwomanWife Mother Author:Bettina Arndt
“My mother saved our home with a minimum wage job. But in the 1960s, a minimum wage job would support a family of three above the poverty line. Not today. Not even close. I understood right then that people can work hard, they can play by the rules, and they can still take a hard smack.” PeopleStillsHardPlayHomeRealityTodayJobsMotherThreePoliticsLinesWorkJusticeMoneyFamilyPovertyHistorySupportGenerationsPolicyHard WorkEthicsUnderstoodHuman RightsSavedIdeologyMinimum1960sCivilityMinimum WageSmackFood Stamps Author:Elizabeth Warren
“How deep is our desire to do better than our mothers--to bring daughters into adulthood strong and fierce yet loving and gentle, adventurous and competitive but still nurturing and friendly, sweet yet sharp. We know as working women that we can't quite have it all, but that hasn't stopped us from wanting it all for them.” KnowsStillsMotherDesireStrongWorkSweetDaughterGentleFriendlyFierceAdulthoodAdventurousNurturingWorking Women Author:Anne Roiphe
“Current conflicts and guilt about being a woman who is a mother and a person in her own right are a socially defined malaise, notan individual problem.... The conflict is not between being a mother and having a career; it is between nineteenth-century ideas about children and today's ideas about women.” ChildrenPersonsIdeasProblemTodayMotherIndividualWomenWorkCareersCenturyConflictGuiltCurrentsDefinedMen WomenBeing A WomanNineteenth CenturyBeing A MotherMalaise Author:Sandra Scarr
“Ideas about mothers have swung historically with the roles of women. When women were needed to work the fields or shops, experts claimed that children didn't need them much. Mothers, who might be too soft and sentimental, could even be bad for children's character development. But when men left home during the Industrial Revolution to work elsewhere, women were "needed" at home. The cult of domesticity and motherhood became a virtue that kept women in their place.” MenNeedsChildrenIdeasCharacterHomeMightMotherLeftWorkResponsibilityRolesVirtueFieldsRevolutionDevelopmentNeededMotherhoodExpertsShopsElsewhereSentimentalCultCharacter DevelopmentIndustrial RevolutionDomesticityKept Woman Author:Sandra Scarr