A woman’s role in society has seen a constant development of their personality, abilities, and social standing. Women have come a long way from simply being household keepers whose role in life was to keep the house clean, keep her man well fed, and the children clothed and clean. The woman seemed to exist only to be in the service of those around her. Over the decades, women have constantly striven for equal opportunities with men and proven that, whenever given the chance, a woman can and will outperform the men. Within this paper, I hope to prove that the so-called Superwomen do exist on various levels. What defines a superwoman? Does she really exist? Or is she simply the product of an over imaginative myth?
The etymology of the word Superwoman actually stems from the combination of 2 individual words. The word, as an adjective connotes the highest degree of power or the state of being first rate, very good, or excellent. Woman of course, means a person of the female specie. The combined word is therefore taken to mean a female who seems to have the extraordinary ability to combine multiple tasks associated with a working career alongside her duties as a wife, mother, and sometimes, even as a graduate student. Since the woman is expected to carry on her traditional role as the homemaker, the additional tasks of being a primary breadwinner for the family, maybe even being a single parent, allows other people to view her in a remarkably strong and powerful image, hence the term Superwoman or Superwomen in plural form.
The term “Superwoman” is sometimes also used to connote a syndrome known as “The Superwoman Syndrome” which defines a woman who tries to do it all in life but discovers that you can only accomplish so much. It is a term first used in 1984 by author Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz in the book that carried the same title and then later again in 1989 by Professor Arlie Hochschild and Anne Machung. So the term can also be used to negatively define the unrealistic expectations of the modern day woman.
Then there is also the urban dictionary definition of the term which is used to describe women who strive to always compete with and outdo the men in their lives for control or success. This is more commonly known as the Suco or Superwoman Complex.
It is not for me to say that an ordinary woman is incapable of multi-tasking the way the so-called superwoman does. Both of them are highly capable of accomplishing multiple tasks successfully. It is often said however, that an ordinary woman cannot accomplish all her career oriented goals without sacrificing her family life. Oftentimes, women who are not really sure that they can accomplish all of their activities find themselves questioning their abilities and oftentimes, failing miserably either in the personal or professional aspect of their lives. Superwoman on the other hand, seem to time on their side. They always have enough time in a day to accomplish their career tasks while taking the kids to soccer practice and making sure that her husband’s favorite dinner is on the table every night.
There is no real template that women follow in order to judge themselves worthy of being called a superwoman. From a female point of view, all women of the modern times should be called superwomen because of the now seemingly inborn ability of the female gender to successfully juggle their work and home duties better than their male counterparts. It is this inexplicable ablity of women that often leaves men wondering and declaring certain negative aspects of the so called “Superwomen” generation.
Men most oftenly use the term “superwoman” in a derogatory manner without realizing that it is actually a term that should be uttered with respect because of all the duties that women fulfill in their daily lives without complaint nor question. Unlike the male counterparts who do not understand how hard a woman works to have everything that they take for granted. Things such as a job promotion and higher wages do not come easily for the females because we live in a male dominated world and any successful woman finds herself questioned and whispered about in modern society. These are the people who do not realize nor do they wish to understand all the sacrifices that come along with being called a “Superwoman”.
Look around you, do you see the woman rushing by you in the street? The woman running in heels to catch the subway train? Or that SUV pulling up in the soccer field parking lot driven by a mom? Each and every one of these women are Superwomen in their own right and by their own definition. Superwomen exist all around us. We meet them every single day and yet we do not realize that they belong to the label of “Superwoman” or “Superwomen” as the case may be.. We have reached that point when our society now takes it for granted that women can multitask successfully without having to sacrifice anything in their personal lives. These women also do not feel the need to label themselves because as women, multitasking and the ability to stay calm and composed in the face of overwhelming odds are abilities that just seem to flow naturally for them. It is done without even a second though. Being a “Superwoman” is almost second nature to them.
At this point, I feel it is my duty to point out however that there is a myth floating around out there regarding the idealist definition or vision of who and what a “Superwoman” or “Superwomen” should be. Of course the idea of a woman who wakes up at the crack of dawn to make sure that the lunches of her husband and school age children are prepared while she finished the laundry and irons clothes before preparing herself for a full day of office work is just that, a myth fed by the old Hollywood movie portrayals of a successful woman. Even with the most careful planning and time budgeting, a woman can only fit so much into a 24 hour day.
In conclusion, I would like to answer the questions I posed earlier in this paper. What defines a superwoman? A superwoman is defined by her ability to do everything that needs to be done to the best of her abilities. The definition of the word varies upon the situation that the woman finds herself existing in. We define her by the word judging her by the outcome of her public actions. Does she really exist? Yes she does. She is the mother we never gave a second thought to when she was raising us. She is the sister whom we ignore because we think she is always showing off. Is she the product of an over imaginative myth? Yes and no. Although there are idealized concepts of how to identify a superwoman, and some women do hold themselves to the mythological critreria, the reality is that when she does exist in real life, she is nowhere near the mythologized criteria of a “Superwoman”.