The Woman All Women Once Were (2018)

This film explores the existential crisis of three career women in the Silicon Valley during the very overwhelming year or two following the birth of their children. These highly educated, well-off women have been engaged in advocating for women's rights and gender equality in classrooms and women's shelters. They are privileged enough to have choices; they have actively differentiated themselves from their mothers and stubbornly achieved advanced degrees and professional recognition. Childbirth and the unfairness in the working place that follows soon after, though, make them question the very foundations of their efforts: how to be faithful to their beliefs when they can no longer find signs of 'modern womanhood' in their existences? The film raises many questions and offers productive confusion instead of easy comfort. Wrestling with contradiction is a hallmark of modern parenthood, perhaps--as the interviewees suggest--is not something to fear or reject but to recognize, accept, and simply express.