Cate Blanchett may have been on to something with her observations earlier this week noting the media fixation with Hollywood mothers and their ability to ‘do it all’.
So good on Angelina Jolie for taking one for the team by side-stepping the inane question AND acknowledging the privilege of Hollywood’s working mothers.
Asked about how she coped with “mum guilt’ in a Daily News interview that also referred to her as a “Hollywood superstar — and supermom”, she acknowledged her rare position as a privileged celebrity with an indispensable amount of help at her disposal.
“I’m not a single mom with two jobs trying to get by every day,” she told the Daily News.
“I have much more support than most people, most women in this world. And I have the financial means to have a home and health care and food.”
Jolie said she didn’t feel it was her place to complain about the subject of work/life balance, admitting that she was in a “rare position” to choose which work she would take depending on her family’s needs — a position that many working mothers would find enviable.
“I actually feel that women in my position, when we have all at our disposal to help us, shouldn’t complain. Consider all the people who really struggle and don’t have the financial means, don’t have the support, and many people are single raising children. That’s hard.”
Her comments came in response to a question regarding an interview with Chirlane McCray, the wife of New York City marry Bill de Blasio, who earlier this week spoke of her own “mum guilt” and the challenges she faced having her child at 40 while juggling a demanding career.
“I was 40 years old. I had a life. Especially with Chiara—will we feel guilt forever more? Of course, yes. But the truth is, I could not spend every day with her. I didn’t want to do that,” she told NYMag.