A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS OF CAREER WOMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES IN CANDACE BUSHNELL’S LIPSTICK JUNGLE

Abstract

Lipstick Jungle is a novel by Candace Bushnell published in 2005. The novel represents career women’s life. The female characters are portrayed as career women who live in the patriarchal system. The system causes some problems for career women. There are three problems to discuss in this study. The first problem is the point of view of the female characters about career women and families’ life. The second one is the difficulties experienced by the female characters related to career and families’ life. The last problem is the female characters’ decision to choose between career or families’ life. The problems are analyzed by using the theory of patriarchy proposed by Sylvia Walby. A patriarchy is a social system that men handle the power to all important sectors in family, society, government, economy, education and other sectors. This theory is used to analyze the data related to the problems of career women in the patriarchal system. The results of this study show that the female characters as career women live without considering women’s role in the patriarchal system. They are the modern women who bravely say what they want to do and choose the way of life, whether they have to be a woman, a mother, an unmarried woman, a married woman, a housewife, or a career woman.