I am honored to win the 2016 Community Media Rika Welch leadership award for community impact; a testimony to the Guests who shared their stories on MidLIFE Matters. In addition, an 2018 interview I did with Judith Altmann, a Holocaust Survivor, won an award. In 2020 and 2021 two other awards acknowledged the content of interviews dealing with Child Sex Trafficking in CT and Non-Profit leadership. In 2023 MidLIFE Matters won First Place for a Profile Talk Show.Wives or Mistresses?
Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 09:46AM
A wise woman in my recent workshop shared her father's advice: "Sleep with a man because you want to --not because you need him to provide food and shelter." Are the women of the Upper East Side -- as profiled from an anthropological perspective in a NYT article -- equal partners, or possessions?
Author Wednesday Martin interviewed and observed 100 'Glam SHAMS' - women she labeled as glamorous, stay-at-home-women. ("Poor Little Rich Women" NYT, Sunday Review, 5/17/15) Her conclusion:
'Married to masters of the universe, these women are a lot like mistresses - dependent and comparatively disempowered.' They often use their graduate-degree skills to raise funds and get their kids into the right schools.
What a fascinating tribe: Not my idea of feminism.
I recommend two books: Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women's Changing Lives by psychologist Ana Fels, and Wednesday Martin's forthcoming memoir Primates of Park Avenue. Then TALK with your daughters and friends about these ideas.
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