The pursuit of work-family balance and the crisis of social reproduction in short fiction by Helen Simpson and Tessa Hadley

Abstract

In this interdisciplinary paper I will embark on a feminist reading of contemporary short fiction by women writers focusing on the topic of work-life balance in the first two decades of the 21st century. I will show how the Friedanian dissatisfaction traced in the female characters by Hadley and Simpson is symptomatic of the infeasibility of work-life balance which has emerged as a new feminist ideal in the 21st century. Through the writing of Angela McRobbie, Catherine Rottenberg and Nancy Fraser I will showcase how feminism has changed its goals and vocabulary and how it is being used in order to alleviate the ongoing crisis of social reproduction that has emerged in the neoliberal world. This paper will conclude that Helen Simpson’s and Tessa Hadley’s short fiction bring the crisis of social reproduction in the spotlight, expose the trap that the new ideal of work-life balance entails, showcase the challenges that women face when trying to reach an impossible ideal and question the contemporary face of mainstream feminism. In other words, I will show how Simpson and Hadley’s writing contends that patriarchy is still in place and calls for resistance.