This past week I went and saw the film I Don't Know How She Does It with my mother. I was grumbling the entire time because I knew I would be analyzing the film from a feminist's prospective the entire time, which can honestly be exhausting.
Basically a white, upper-class business women with a husband and two children struggles with finding enough time to "do it all". This character demonstrated that even with a supportive partner, who also had an affluent job, and a full-time nanny, it is still hard to find the balance between work and home. The entire time watching this, though I couldn't help but think of the single mothers who have two jobs and no nanny and they barely scrape by to feed their children. It's almost laughable that these two types of women could be compared. A big plot point is that this mom didn't have enough time after her business trips to make something for her daughter's bake sale. I thought about the moms who couldn't afford to get ingredients for a bake sale.
I will honestly agree that this film was a great representation of a certain type of working mother, one that rarely exists in reality. There was a lot of good points raised about women in the white-collared workplace that were somewhat executed, but the film felt very second wave-y in some capacities, which is unfortunate. The LA Times says, "The story lacks the wit to actually say something about double standards or gender politics in a crummy economy." (LA Times) It is too fantastical. My mother, who will love SJP forever, even thought that it was far-reaching and couldn't relate to having the problem of having children in private school and a nanny, but still feeling inadequate. 'I Don't Know...' tries, but just doesn't have a voice.
