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Fifty years ago a successful women would have been a stay-at-home mom. She took care of the home life, the domestic side of things, and took pride in her children's every move. Today, most women have to work, but the expectations have not changed. If anything, people expect more from women than ever before.
Today if a woman chooses to pursue her career and puts her family on hold she is deeply criticized. Same goes for a woman who isn't married. If a woman hits thirty and is unmarried people look and act like she is somehow flawed, and is an old spinster. Unless a woman has it all, husband/life partner, a good job, and children; people think less of her. Maybe not outright, but you know they think it. They think wow, she has a great career, a great marriage, but why doesn't she have children; or, she is a great wife and stay-at-home mom, why didn't she ever pursue a career?
It seems like women just can't win. Everybody expects them to be superheroes and take care of the house, family, husband, and have a career. But even when they do, they still get criticized. For example, the new CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, is being attacked by many.
A female CEO in a Fortune 500 company is almost unheard of. Having a female CEO who plans on having a family is even more astonishing. Being a CEO can be very demanding, so when Mayer announced that she was pregnant, the bashing and accusations started to fly.
Some said she shouldn't have taken the position if she knew she was pregnant. Even though Mayer only plans on taking a short amount of time off after having the baby, people still think she is being irresponsible to her baby and to her new job. She can't win.
If she goes back to work quickly people will complain that she is a bad mother and is going to put her job before her child, and if she stays home with the baby people will say she is not doing her job and should not have accepted it.
This is beyond unfair and it makes me furious. Why can't she just do what she wants to do? Men get to work CEO positions all the time. Do people call them bad fathers? Hardly. Why is it always on the women? Fathers can take maternity leave and get no flack for it. Women get paid less because they are more likely to take time off for children. It is not women's fault men don't have the plumbing to give birth, yet they get punished for it.
Why are women expected to have it all? If a man is unmarried and thirty he's a "player." Or if he chooses a career over wife and children he is a devoted businessman. Times are changing and I wish some people would catch up, quit criticizing, and focus on their own lives instead of others. If a woman is happy with her life, what she has shouldn't matter to others.