We all know that the traditional female role is that of the ultimate caretaker. Since the beginning of time, women have been the ones who traditionally look after the children, cook the meals, clean the house and cater to their spouse’s every whim. Up to a century ago, and even now in some places in the world, women do not have a choice other than to fulfill that traditional role. The world has changed though, and the role of a woman has changed with it, sometimes by choice and sometimes no, yet women have been able to fill whatever shoes we have been given and that in itself is something to celebrate. 



I am not saying that anything is wrong with adopting a traditional role of caretaker – in fact, I admire my many friends who have because that role in itself was never an easy one. I admire women who choose to stay at home to be “just” a caretaker – because they’ve made some very difficult choices and often put up with a lot of criticism from the “modern woman”. What people don’t seem to realize is that the women who have chosen to take on the traditional roles may have given up on their dreams for a career, have given up a second income and often have to struggle to make ends meet psychologically, physically and in a monetary manner just to maintain a good quality of life for everyone they are taking care of. That, in itself, is an admirable task. Then you have the opposite, the career woman. I think the evolution of the career woman, by itself, is an intriguing one. I mean, as far as I know (and I am by no means a history buff), women started working outside of the home because of necessity. The war had come and only men were allowed in the army – leaving the women to fend for the homestead. This forced women into the hospitals and the factories and onto the farms in an effort to support not just the people left at home, but their brave fighting spouses, brothers, fathers and sons. Women had no choice at this point – they had to work to survive and to ensure the survival of their loved ones – again, another responsibility notch in the belt of the care-taker, but this time, one that sparked a revolution so to speak. Women started demanding equal rights as men – in society, in politics, in the workplace, in the home and even sexually. If we were able to successfully take on men’s roles and still complete our traditional responsibilities, then why should we not be recognised for this? Our mistake was that we let men set a glass ceiling that we, at first, were not aware of. We were still dependent on men makiing the decisions and placing us in the now-traditional women’s roles in the office. We were now the “support staff” – not a single woman was allowed into the upper echelons of the “professional” male-dominated careers 


That is until we decided we wanted to be free and yet again, broke stereotypes. Why not have a female doctor? Why not a female engineer, accountant or lawyer? Were we not as capable as men – in fact, were we not MORE capable because the typical woman now multi-tasked between her “traditional” role and the male role of bringing home the bacon? Despite criticism, what it meant to be a woman continued to morph….our haircuts changed, the way we dressed changed, the way we viewed ourselves changed and even the way men viewed us changed. Women were the ultimate multi-taskers, switiching between tradition and modernity every second of our lives. 



Be free to embrace your true feminine self! (Flickr Creative Commons)[/caption] And we still do this today – from the free-thinking hippies of the 1960s and 70s, to the hard-core rockers of the 80s to the modern multi-tasking career women of today, women constantly switch back and forth between roles, a task that most men would consider completely impossible to do if they chose to think about it or chose to even try. In fact, I will go as far as to say that we’ve surpassed men with regards to multi-tasking within our current roles. The traditional role in itself remains the same – women are caregivers; it is engrained in our very DNA at this point. The modern “working woman” however, multi-tasks not just between the traditional role and the new career woman role, but within the career woman role as well. Just think about it, how many women do you know that hold only one job? I recently was made aware that most of the women in my life, who often feel overwhelmed but get the job done, hold multiple roles within their multiple roles. Confused? Okay, think of it this way. I recently spoke to three different close friends of mine who all have typical 9 – 5 jobs. One works as guest relations in a popular tourist attraction in Jamaica, one is a singer/actress and one is an office clerk. All three of them come home, take care of their house/husband/children/dinner and then work on their second (and depending on which you pick, third) careers until the wee hours of the morning. Women are now focusing on more than one career at a time! We multi-career whereas men typically don’t. What does this mean? It means that we have taken on even more extra roles than before – the homogenizing of the sexes is no longer happening in my mind because we’ve gone beyond the “imitation and ownership” of the male role – we are now the stronger sex and should be the ones being admired and desired and imitated. Women are doing what no man has ever done by taking on so many roles successfully – and we are the ones that are truly making the world turn now.

I guess, the whole point of all this is to give you a little boost. The next time you are down, or feel like the world is crumbling around you or feel as if you’re a failure because you cannot keep up with the tasks you have put upon yourself, take a moment and concentrate on where you’ve come and what roles you truly have taken on. Are you a Mother? Then that means you’re a cook, a maid, a spouse, a coach, a driver….etc. etc…and then, if you work on top of that, you’re an employee, an example, a boss, a significant resource and then, if you also do other things outside of work and home, you may be a volunteer, a support, a friend…..there are so many roles that you personally take on that no one, because of all the roles we have now chosen to undertake, can hold it all together 24-7. So, basically, if you are to leave here with any thoughts, I’d love for you to realize who exactly you are, realize exactly how successful you are at doing it and realize that you are the epitomy of the strong, modern, multitasking woman and a member of the stronger sex.
Serena is a 30-something,PR-friendly, gluten-free, dairy-free, “smug-married”, self-proclaimed people-watching allergy-queen just trying to navigate this obstacle course called life. Her blog, Bewildered Bug, is her attempt to relay her everyday experiences. Feel free to contact her there, on Facebook or on Twitter.    


Photo credit Flickr