The topline results of a recent survey of women's attitudes, by redirect.co.uk (the online arm of Red magazine) found that women trying to emulate Nigella Lawson in her role as successful journalist and Domestic Goddess were becoming stressed out by the role hoisted upon them by society (1).
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They resented the notion that women should try to 'have it all' (or, if you're Nigella, baking your cake and eating it too).
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If this survey is to be believed, four out of 10 of the 3000 women surveyed admitted that just thinking about hosting a four-course dinner party while juggling work and family life left them needing to 'lie down'. So overburdened do these women feel that six out of 10 want to abandon their careers for a life of luxury. Eighty-eight percent dream about having more free time, and two thirds feel generally overwhelmed by the choices created by modern life.
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Carmel Hayes, Red's media editor, said that women today are under so much pressure that they are in danger of adding 'even more strings to their already stretched bows'. And it would seem from this survey that women today are more than ready to throw in the towel, and return to a mythical past where the most they had to worry about was whether their soufflé would rise.
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But is this really a case of 'down with women's lib', or is something else going on? Dig a little deeper and you discover that, in fact, 60 percent of the women surveyed enjoy their jobs but would be happier if they were a) paid more and b) were given more recognition for their efforts. Nothing new there!
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The responses to other questions in the survey indicate that women worry about more than dinner parties. Under the heading 'Women think Britain's gone downhill', we find out that seven out of 10 women are fed up with the mushrooming 'compensation culture', and 66 percent said they have had enough of increasing political correctness.
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So are these women just fed up with being women - or does the survey indicate a deeper sense of frustration about UK society today? Either way, it seems, the proof is not in the pudding.
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(1) See the Red survey
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