Why wont society accept the working woman, why???

I had a great conversation with my friend Electra (not her real name)this weekend. I love great conversations. This conversation started on Saturday night at 11.30pm and ended at 1.30am on Sunday morning. Long conversation, I know, but we were discussing a very thorny issue. We were trying to figure out where the ambitious corporate woman fits into our Zimbabwean society.

You see, Electra and I are women on the go; we plan on furthering our studies, excelling in our fields of employment and owning businesses of our own one day. We have ambitions, dreams, and goals. We have legacies to live and leave. Thanks be to God, He didn’t just give us these ambitions and dreams but he also gave us the potential and ability to turn them into reality. Marriage is in the plan, children too; the whole shebang white picket fence with 2.5 children. They are there but they are not the entire plan.

So here is the tricky part; all the kitchen parties and bridal showers I have been to talk about the role of a woman in the home. They want to discuss how we should get up at the crack of dawn and get the family ready for work and school, pick up the children at lunch time, and be home by 5 to make supper and check the homeworks, not forgetting that the house must be spick and span too. "Otherwise" they say, “he will leave you find someone else who can do it for him”. FYI, I know many housewives who are being cheated on anyway. I have never been to one do where they address a situation where the wife is a high flying Executive of a large corporation. Between her job and trying to keep sane she cannot operate like the much quoted “Proverbs 31 woman”. Because that’s where Electra and I are going…

I was reading an article by D Hlophe (titled The Dewomanising corporate world). About a woman who lost her husband to the maid because the maid had taken over the role of the wife in the household. Now hold up Hlophe, wasn’t this woman at work making money? Wasn’t she bringing income to the household? Hadn’t she employed the maid so that she could continue bringing in the money while keeping the house in order as well?? 

What is society saying to young and ambitious ladies such as Electra and I. should we play it small and safe so as to preserve our future families? Should I work less and dream less simply because I am a woman? That doesn’t sound right, it isn’t right. But society still won’t talk about it. It won’t negotiate with the men to meet this new breed of woman halfway.

My memo to men would read “unlike the days of yesteryear where you were the only ones bringing in an income, your wives are now doing the same. Therefore you need to take up some of the household responsibilities. It was always meant to be a 50/50 arrangement wasn’t it”

Life sure knows I am not going to suppress my potential in order to fit into the ideals of the perfect woman.

Until society addressed these issues I find myself backed up in a corner…I am darned if I do…I am darned if I don’t…