As little girls we are told many things, and whether it eventually happens or not, many of us dream of becoming a wife & mother – not necessarily in that order – but nevertheless, its instilled in us.
As we get older, the dream becomes slightly more urgent, with cultural and societal standards being set that you must be married and/or have children by a certain age, it can become depressing.
Everytime you go on social media, you’re bombarded with pictures of pwoples various achievements – graduating, career/business endeavours going well, homes & cars being bought, vacations/baecations, engagements & wdddings, babies – everyone is doing something and don’t we all know it!
With the shift in expectations of women, its now acceptable for a woman to be of the “marrying age” but not yet married, as long as she is doing well in her career. This takes me back to the title of this blog, “Can Women Really have it All?”
Lets look at a high-flying career woman like Rihanna. She began singing as a teenager and after cementing her name as a legend in the music industry , she then vsntured into the business world, with her cosmetics and lingerie brands. Now, a few months away from her 32nd birthday, although she is unmarried and has no children (I assume this is by choice as I am sure she’s not short of offers!), she is estimated to have a net worth of $600 million.
Let that sink in and marinate for a moment before I go onto my next point. 
On the flip side, we have Jada Pinkett Smith, who was married and became a mother of two before turning 30. She has an estimated net worth of $50 million dollars. Yes, she began her career in the 90’s and already had established herself as an actress before madrying Will Smith and having children, but her star began to dim a little as her career took a backseat and she let Will continue to build his own while focused on taking care of their family. She has said this herself and has also said that it wasn’t easy for her and she understandably felt some resentment towards him as she wasn’t where she wanted to be. Their kids are more or less adults now, and she seems to be successfully rebuilding her career; she had a starring role in the hit film ‘Girls Trip’ and has a auccessful web-series, ‘Red Table Talk.’ She recently turned 48, proving it’s never too late to have success or continue to be successful.
Finally, we have Beyonce. She released her first album with Destiny’s Child in 1998, at the age of 17 and then her first solo album in 2003 at the age of 21. She married Jay-Z in 2008 at the age of 26 and becams a mother at 30. She has multiple awards and accolades, is equally as succesful as her husband, if not more successful but that’s another conversation for another time. She recently turned 38, is a mother of 3 and has an estimated net worth of $400 million.
I say all of this to say, I do believe women can have it all, but there’s a few things that come into play here. You need a supportive partner who understands that you have goals you’re trying to achieve. In the case of Beyonce, you need a partner who’s willing to work with you and help you achieve your goals, possibly by using his own success to boost yours. If you decide to take the backseat and allow your partner to succeed, then they must be willing to do the same for you when the time is right, as in tthe case of Will and Jada. Of the three women that I’ve used as examples, Rihanna is the richest (financially), the youngest and the only one who is chiild-free. Some would say she is more successful than the other two, and i feel that this is somewhat down to her not having any seriously dsitracting relationships since Chris Brown. She’s had re,ationships which have been kept quite private but she doesn’t seem to be deeply engrossed in them as the average woman of her age would be. As crazy as this might sound, a part of me feels like she and Chris Brown probably would still be together if their domestic violence incident hadn’t been so public as they seemed so in love and I also feel like they still have contact but again, that’s another conversation for another time. They would probably be married, maybe have some kids; she probably would’ve taken the Jada route and played the background to his foreground, and definitely wouldn’t be the successful savage that she is today.
That’s just my opinion, you don’t have to agree, but think about it.
Maybe the narrative has been wrong this whole time, and men are actually the downfall of women, not the other way round like the world tells us.
all photos sourced from Instagram
By Natallie2008
NOA World Entertainment 
