Can we finally have it all?

Last week, we received the news that Helen Gurley Brown, former editor of Cosmopolitan, had died. She presided over the woman’s glossy for 32 years, taking it from a conventional magazine for repressed housewives of the USA to what many regard as a bible for 21^st century womanhood.

During her career, Gurley Brown was criticised by feminists for placing too much editorial emphasis on attracting and pleasing men, and for her vocal appreciation of plastic surgery. Nevertheless she remains in my opinion a justifiable and valuable female role model.

Helen Gurley Brown was one of the first people to suggest that women might have it all- the corner office, the loving family and fulfilling sex-life.

Although in theory, Gurley Brown is of course correct, it is only 50 years after this initial statement, and numerous boardroom and bedroom struggles, that this utopian ideal looks to be coming anywhere near some kind of reality.

The problem was, that although Cosmopolitan encouraged business, love and motherhood, popular culture and the world’s media didn’t really play ball. Over the past 50 years, the two seem to have colluded in their portrayal of such women, intermittently branding them as boardroom bitches, unloving mothers and inattentive wives.

In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher was widely dubbed The Iron Lady; whilst this pseudonym suggested her uncompromising approach to foreign policy, it hardly painted her as a loving wife and sensitive mother. Our first female PM has not been the only muti-tasking mummy to suffer the media’s scrutiny. Anna Wintour’s less than open demeanor has led to her portrayal as an ice-woman and bitch, a characterisation the press eagerly confirmed in their reporting of her affair and divorce in 1999.

This criticism of career women is not confined to real-life editorial, but perpetuated by popular culture. There are countless television series where women in power are negatively portrayed or seen failing to maintain a work life balance; The Devil Wears Prada, Ally McBeal and BBC’s Mistresses to name just a few.

Nevertheless, all is not doom and gloom. Perhaps I am optimistic but the tide does seem to be turning and recently I have noticed a far more positive media approach to the women that have it all.

First of all Karen Brady, vice-chairman of West Ham United, wife and mother of two became a veritable nation’s sweetheart. Then there was the reaction to Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg’s brave declaration that she leaves the office at 5.30pm everyday for dinner with her children. This statement, which could’ve been met with derision, was actually applauded for its conveyance of simple family commitment. Similarly, last month, when pregnant Marisa Mayer was named Yahoo CEO, comments were predominantly congratulatory, focusing on her aptitude for the job rather than her imminent delivery. 

I’m not saying that the problem of work-life balance for females no longer exists. The very fact that a successful businesswoman in a loving relationship and with children compels comment at all, proves there is still some way to go. Nevertheless, as we at Wordville find so often, it helps to have the media on our side.   

By Polly Robinson