Hi and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on IHeartRadio.

There was a piece in the free press a few days ago that I immediately sent to my 15-year-old

daughter.

It was called How I Became a Wife.

And I was already thinking of doing a monologue on it when a listener, hi Amy, sent it to me too, so obviously it's a fit.

The writer Larissa Phillips writes, quote,

My parents weren't that extreme, but they still wanted to take a sledgehammer to social norms.

They both adhered to the blank slate idea, that differences between men and women

were socially constructed, and a little tweaking would solve the problem of disparate outcomes.

My mother dressed my sister and I in overalls and earth shoes, and if we got baby dolls or

T-sets, it was with a hint of disapproval. Why would girls play it being mothers or wives

when they could sit on the Supreme Court or fly to the moon? When I was in the sixth grade, my mother

gave me a framed print that said, a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle, end quote.

I'll say that does actually sound quite extreme. but the part that I completely can't wrap my

mind around is that you can only sit on the Supreme Court or fly to the moon if you aren't

married and don't have kids.

That's the separation for me.

I'll say that my parents also weren't like you should definitely

get married and have children. I don't remember them ever saying that to me. But the truth is that my

career that they did want me to have took off when I got married. It was just easier to do what I

wanted to do with a support system.

And not just financial, although that definitely helped, but emotional.

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