Where has feminism led us?

When I read last week that a former Goldman Sachs vice president-- a
woman-- was suing the firm for firing her a week before she returned
from maternity leave (NY Times, 3/24/2010), I felt like we had
regressed back to the pre-Gloria Steinem era. What good was the
women’s lib movement, after all, if women are still unable to hold
down big jobs and have kids, too?

I graduated from Princeton in 1990. Like other young women who came of
age in the 70s and 80s, I was told that I could do anything, be
anything, that the world was my oyster. In my early 30s, with two
degrees and ten years of work experience under my belt, I quit my job
to stay home and raise my children. I wasn’t educated or trained to be
a mother, God knows. But, with a husband who traveled extensively for
work, an extended family that lived three thousand miles away, and a
workplace that was unforgiving towards mothers, I felt I had no
choice.

As I crawl around the floor picking up Cheerios and toys, I wonder
where the women's lib movement has brought us. How liberated are women
today, really? When we look at the life of the "superwoman" career
mom-- cramming 36 hours worth of obligations into each 24 hour day,
putting the needs of a whiny toddler above her own, caving in to the
pressure of other people’s expectations and her own desire to excel in
every aspect of her life-- the picture is far from liberating.

Firing a woman who was out on maternity leave is illegal, and
hopefully Goldman will be held accountable for their actions if this
proves to be the case. But I can’t help but think that a society which
either forces a mother to choose between her job and her family life,
or ensures she can’t succeed when she pursues both, is just tragic and
cruel.