Last night, I had dinner with my girlfriends and the conversation led to our careers and our goals for the future. One of my friends who is a successful manager in one company has been offered a great job promotion with an opportunity to work in another country, but she said she refused the offer because her boyfriend didn’t want to move.
And that got me thinking that when it comes to ambitious and career-oriented women and their intimate relationships, they only have 2 options – to find a super-supportive partner or to remain single.
It is not that these men are not supportive and progressive human beings. At least they see themselves that way since many of them are CEOs and leaders and they know what having a successful career really means. They like to have just as successful woman like them. However, they like it until her career starts interfering with their career.
One study discovered that two-thirds of the women decided to quit their job because of their husband’s not wanting to alter their schedule to participate more in the caregiving of their baby or the household chores.
And it is hard, even for couples who are committed to equality because trying to manage two careers can be tricky. Therefore, couples often choose the “easier” solution with the historical background to it – a union of a career-oriented man and a family-oriented woman. Especially if the man is older than the woman and ahead of his career. All this creates a vicious cycle – men still have more opportunities to get higher salaries, therefore it is getting harder and harder for women to catch up.
If your partner is not supportive and is not even interested in trying to find a solution that will benefit the both, then you should ask yourself if you want to live a life like that.
Women want to be financially independent because it gives them the opportunity to hold their relationships and their boundaries at a higher standard. Women want recognition. They want love. They want support both at work and at home.
And they shouldn’t accept anything less than that.
