Compare this excerpt from a recent column by Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk to the excerpt from The Feminine Mystique, a 1963 book by Betty Friedan, below it:
Women who want to have children should make it a priority in their twenties to find a partner....[Y]ou have your whole life to get a career. Obviously, that's not true of having a baby. If you are past your early twenties, and you're single and want to have children, you need to find a partner now. Take that career drive and direct it toward mating - your ovaries will not last longer than your career....The good news is that psychology research shows you will gain more happiness anyway by finding a partner than by having a good job. --Penelope Trunk (2008)
Over and over women [in the 1940s and 50s] heard in voices of tradition and of Freudian sophistication that they could desire no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity. Experts told them how to catch a man and keep him, how to breastfeed children and handle their toilet training...how to dress, look, and act more feminine and make marriage more exciting....They were taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents. They learned that truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights--the independence and the opportunities that the old-fashioned feminists fought for. --Betty Friedan (1963)In 2008, on the eve of a presidential election that very well may include a female candidate, are we experiencing some sort of backlash against the idea that a woman can find happiness and fulfillment outside the home? Or is Penelope Trunk's mandate to "start mating ASAP" a valuable piece of advice for today's female workers?
3 comments:
I've been reading a lot of reactions to Penelope's column, and I think this is one of the best I've seen so far.
I was very disappointed in her writing this piece; I admire Penelope as someone who has bounced back time and time again from workplace pitfalls and perils and continues to build a strong and resilient career. For her to advise women to go ahead and have babies now, particularly the part about needing a man to do it in this day and age, is seriously outdated as your Friedan comparison shows.
Women are far more than timed incubators; and not every woman wants to have children. I hope that reactions such as yours will help to break down this perception, that sadly, appears to continue to thrive.
Thanks for your comment, Kate. I've read Penelope before too, but I'm getting the sense that a lot of her writing has one clear objective: to generate controversy, at any cost. And for me, that's really off-putting. Especially because I think this is a vitally important topic.
Hillary? No. This blog post shows the feeble mentality of favouring her "just" because she's a woman, not because of her policies. It's that kind of thuggish nepotistic mentality that makes people vote for their religion or whatever, and consequently pulverize the country even more. Hillary is the worst example of the victim-focused, chauvinistic feminist who blames men for the problems of women. She doesn't want equal divorce or accuracy in sexual abuse allegations. Nor does she care for civil liberties and libertarian economic choice. It's "her" turn now for her communistic attitude
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