Joyce Purnick " controversy "

Good morning Froma. I had the same reaction to Joyce Purnick"s

    remarks on certain sad conflict between  motherhood and profession.

       What struck me was this: here is a truly empowered woman -in no

    need of male " rescue " - feeling forced to recant.

        And it was just common sense!

      I was very influenced by feminist writers when they were just obscure

    names in the library. Way back I loved Betty Friedan's now classic : " The

    Feminine Mystique ". I could SEE what she was talking about. I felt very

    sad about a woman's brain going to waste in her mother's role.

       When feminism began to get to have a rather obnoxious tone - dizzy

    from success- I felt more sympathy for the unpretentious mother and

    housewife snubbed by the world shaking MOVEMENT.

         There is inherent tragedy in a woman's situation. I just re-read

    Kate Chopin's 1899 classic " The Awakening ". The heroine , Edna Pontellier,

    could not be a " mother woman " but she could not be  quite " free "

    either with her patriachial husband and two young children. She ends up

    drowning herself in the sea. The book was a shocking scandal at  turn

    of the  century.

        Edna is still around !