When I was a teen growing up in the decade of big, bad hair and ‘Frankie says’ t-shirts I became aware of a new breed of woman.  She was absolutely nothing like my mother. She could have her own high powered stock broker career (or any career), carry a brick like cell phone, drive a cherry red Porsche, drink with the lads after a 12 hour work day and then go home to her well behaved 2.4 children, high powered husband and lovable Labrador.

Photo by hansvandenberg30@flickr

The 80s gave birth to the Superwoman.

Magazines and newspapers told how women really could ‘have it all’ and these women folk were the biggest threat to MANkind since the Cold War.  Superwoman could battle her way to the corporate top, overthrowing members of the ‘boys club’ and taking their salaries along the way.  Sure, she’d have to fight but she’d have the shoulder pads the size of Texas sewn in her power suit to soften the blows as she climbed.

The corporate world was now fair game for our fearless heroine.  And she could do all this whilst having a family of her own.  It was all very doable and encouraged.  The time had come for women to tackle and beat men at their own games.

I left my teenage years behind in 1993.  I had a job, was going to college, had a car (not a Porsche I might add) and was about to get my own flat.  I still believed in Superwoman.

Through my twenties I began to wonder where she’d gone.  The magazines had told me, in my impressionable youth, I could be just like her.  So why wasn’t I happy as I climbed up the career ladder? I worked hard, got promotions and went for many Friday lunchtime drinks down the pub with the men (and it was men back then in the world of IT).

I saw women where I worked who had made it to the top and I also saw how they weren’t equally respected and often torn between their kids and career.  When I had #1 son I became one of them.  They’d lied to me.  Or at least never reported the truth – superwoman was over-worked, stressed to the eyeballs and barely held it altogether. Insanity was just one more late afternoon meeting away.

By having it all, Superwoman had really become SuperwoMan with extra responsibilities.

Don’t misunderstand me here. I think women should be treated equally in the work place (and everywhere else for that matter).  But during this decade of such power pushing we really lost sight of the Divine Feminine.  I didn’t even know She existed – I was a woman working in a male dominated world having been brought up under a male god with no female counterpart.

Times change (as do hair styles, thank the gods).  Superwoman appears to have been tamed with krytponite (or the shoulder pads really did become too much to bare)  and the women, like me, who bought into her promises look to find a balance.  And this is where there’s an opportunity for the Goddess to make her entrance.

The world hasn’t prospered in our aggressive society – the global economy is in ruins, oil is gushing out of the Gulf of Mexico, rain forests are disappearing, children are living on rubbish tips and violence is the daily norm.

I don’t always get it right.  Superwoman is hard to kill but I’m trying to find my balance and bring the Divine Feminine back in all areas of my life.  I owe it to myself, my children and Her.

So how do you feel? Do you still live by Superwoman rules or do you believe it’s time for the Goddess to return?