How did the portrayal of Frances Perkins’s difficulty in balancing her personal and professional life make her more relatable as a character and human being?
I think it definitely made her more relatable. This is an issue that affects many working women today. She did a great job in handling the situation, but I fear there will be those who say she ignored her husband and her daughter for the sake of her career. I think she tried hard to handle a very difficult and delicate situation.
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I feel she did the best she could considering her family’s trials and tribulations. She was a woman in a man’s job, she was a mother and wife who needed to manage the family’s expenses. Expenses far more complicated than most. Not everyone is dealt the cards of a husband and later in life daughter with mental issues.
I was amazed at Frances Perkins balance of her work and her family. I think she did the best she could under the circumstances of her private life. It wasn’t her fault that her husband lost all his money and suffered from mental illness.
She did what she had to do.
Perkins’ work-life balance was relatable. As a single mother in a largely male-dominated area of education, I connected with the gender expectations & pressures described. It made me see myself in her saga.
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I’m not sure being “relatable” is what made the book and the story so interesting to me. For me her trials and hardships made her a fully formed person. Frances Perkins did not cross the pages as a one dimensional person with only the attributes of her profession/professional life. I may not be explaining this adequately, however, it may not have made her relatable to me exactly, in the true sense , but it made her seem less like a created , one dimensional bureaucratic figure and more like a human that actually existed.
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I agree with Gerrie_B that learning about Frances’ marital situation and her concerns about her child gave her "dimension’ that would have been lost had we only learned about her political contributions. I developed a real admiration for the way she managed her private life.
I liked reading about Frances having so many aspects in her life to handle. While I don’t know that I exactly related to some of this, it did make her seem to be a “real person” like most of us, with professional and personal lives to balance. She had so many responsibilities in her life, and I believe she truly cared about everyone and everything. I think she handled it as well as she possibly could. I did keep thinking that she was so fortunate she had Mary Harriman Rumsey in her life. Mary supported Frances with money, time and love. This piece made it hard for me to relate to, as many of us do not have someone like that we can depend on for help and support.
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The portrayal of Frances Perkins’s difficulty balancing her personal and professional life remains relatable to many of today’s women. Finding that work-life balance is so difficult and so very personal. Climbing to corporate ladder complicates things. Being all things to all people is the greatest challenge. It is so often associated with guilt…about being the perfect mother and perfect professional. She did what she had to do with what she had. As her husband’s mental health deteriorated it added significant stress. On a positive note she had a great friend in Mary Harriman Rumsey who stepped in to help…financially and emotionally.
I think it made Perkins more relatable because many people, especially women have gone through that struggle. How do you do your job and still be there for your family? It was particularly hard for her with her husband being mentally ill.
This is something working mothers deal with on a daily basis. It’s a difficult choice to make and something or someone always has to suffer. Whether it’s your marriage, children, or job.
Women are still choosing between family and career.Tge burden however still remains on women to choose. More often than not women give up their career for the sake of family. Perkins considered giving up her career but she had women behind her reminding her of the value she had for the women of eea but those who came after. I don’t believe women today don’t have that kind of support or commroderie.
I think every mother who works outside of the home can relate to the conflicts that plagued Frances. Whether it is missing a child’s swim meet due to an urgent work situation or leaving an important meeting to run to the emergency room for a child’s accident, mothers constantly battle the feeling of inadequacy that comes with being unable to be in two places at once. In addition, like Frances, we have to cope with societal censure, criticism from our own family (including the children!), and our own internalized guilt for not being “super Mom.”
I thought she was a Super Star… well ahead of her time, yet needing to support her family. Her own birth family didn’t encourage her, so she really forged her own path. I liked how she figured out how to look maternal, so as to develop good relationships with all the men with whom she interacted.
I think her troubles balancing her roles made her more human. And I guess that’s relatable to the reader. I am glad the author showed both sides ofher life especially considering the time period she lived in.