Is it me, or is The Good Wife with Julianna Margulies the new Sex In The City? Maybe it’s because I’ve gone from single girl in NYC to married with children, but for me this show has hit a nerve.
Last year I facilitated a twelve-week group for women looking to go back to work. Inspired by a workshop led by Columbia University and The Center for Worklife Policy, and by my own reading of Judith Warner’s Perfect Madness, I wanted to help women who wanted to get back to work for their own well-being. What I discovered is that it’s incredibly hard. Managing a family is tough. Being a working mom in today’s work environment is very tough. And, going back to work after having taken a step off seems almost impossible. Short of a major family crisis, few women seem to do it. And, I discovered, the major obstacle seems to be that “the pay I’d get doesn’t warrant the childcare expense.”
Which brings me to The Good Wife. The protagonist, Alicia Florick, is living so many womens’ fantasy. Yes, she is living through a family crisis, but she gets to go back to an interesting and high-paying job, has the support of a live in mother-in-law, and is championed and protected by the attractive head of her firm. And, her dirty little secret is that she is finding fulfillment in her new life. I would so love for women today to go back to work for their own fulfillment, childcare expenses aside! Happy mothers make happy families, and that does make the world go around.