I am 56, and relate 100%. Growing up in NYC, my mom was part of the women's movement in the 1970's. They were breaking barriers at work and taught their daughters (me and my friends) that now we could be ANYTHING we wanted. They encouraged us to be lawyers and doctors and bosses, but never understood that we would still be expected to do most of the heavy lifting at home.
I'm not sure what they thought, or maybe they didn't plan that far ahead, but either married or divorced, the woman is boss at home, and now outside the home too. It was never really a fair game because we could never win - unless you can hire someone to play the role of a 1950s housewife to care for the family, or maybe an Alice from the Brady Bunch, those responsibilities were still the woman.
The pandemic really shone a light on the inequality of the division of labor at home, even in households where the husbands did a fair share of the work. It's the unseen labor, the mental load that most women carry: staying on top of everyone's medical appointments, planning birthday parties, knowing the other parents and teachers in their kids school, etc., making sure homework gets done, etc.
Gen X women still face sexism and harassment in the workplace, explicit and/or implicit and unequal pay and status within companies. An even larger issue is ageism as women who are passed childbearing years are seen a superfluous, invisible and unimportant. This is by design because in reality, older women are wiser, and generally give less fucks about what men think of them. We can't get pregnant and the constant vigilance against sexual violence eases up a bit.
We also get screwed over in menopause because there is no doctor dedicated to our specific needs at this stage of our life. We are sent to OBGYNs who have zero training in anything but looking after pregnant women , babies, routine cancer screenings, std testing. It's maddening really, and no surprise that many Gen X women are burnt out and pissed off.
I am 56, and relate 100%. Growing up in NYC, my mom was part of the women's movement in the 1970's. They were breaking barriers at work and taught their daughters (me and my friends) that now we could be ANYTHING we wanted. They encouraged us to be lawyers and doctors and bosses, but never understood that we would still be expected to do most of the heavy lifting at home.
I'm not sure what they thought, or maybe they didn't plan that far ahead, but either married or divorced, the woman is boss at home, and now outside the home too. It was never really a fair game because we could never win - unless you can hire someone to play the role of a 1950s housewife to care for the family, or maybe an Alice from the Brady Bunch, those responsibilities were still the woman.
The pandemic really shone a light on the inequality of the division of labor at home, even in households where the husbands did a fair share of the work. It's the unseen labor, the mental load that most women carry: staying on top of everyone's medical appointments, planning birthday parties, knowing the other parents and teachers in their kids school, etc., making sure homework gets done, etc.
Gen X women still face sexism and harassment in the workplace, explicit and/or implicit and unequal pay and status within companies. An even larger issue is ageism as women who are passed childbearing years are seen a superfluous, invisible and unimportant. This is by design because in reality, older women are wiser, and generally give less fucks about what men think of them. We can't get pregnant and the constant vigilance against sexual violence eases up a bit.
We also get screwed over in menopause because there is no doctor dedicated to our specific needs at this stage of our life. We are sent to OBGYNs who have zero training in anything but looking after pregnant women , babies, routine cancer screenings, std testing. It's maddening really, and no surprise that many Gen X women are burnt out and pissed off.