How Women's Lives Have Changed in Just Two Generations
- Mar 12
- 6 min read
Helena Demuynck is the women’s leadership architect and transformation catalyst, and author of It’s Your Turn, guiding high-achievers to shatter glass ceilings from within. She hosts The Boundary Breakers Collective and Power Talks for Remarkable Females, reshaping modern female leadership.
A long conversation with my 86-year-old mother recently brought me back to something many women still carry in fragments, the remembered lives of mothers and grandmothers whose days were shaped by care, washing, and endurance. Looking back at those realities does more than honor the past, it helps us understand how recently women gained the space to imagine different possibilities for their lives, and why so many of us are still learning what to do with that freedom.
The stories that many women still recognize
Not long ago, I spent an hour speaking with my mother about what daily life looked like when she was young and about the lives of the women who came before her. As she described it, I realized how many of these scenes are still familiar to women today, not because we lived them ourselves, but because we heard about them from the women in our families.
My grandmother had ten children. In addition to raising them, she cared for an elderly relative who was seriously ill and required constant attention at home. At that time, there were no disposable diapers, so every piece of cloth used for babies had to be washed, dried, and reused. When women had their periods, there were no sanitary products available in supermarkets. Clothes were washed and reused there as well.
Laundry alone could take hours. Everything was washed by hand. Water had to be carried or heated. Clothes had to be scrubbed, rinsed, hung, collected, and folded. Then, the same process started again the next day.
When my mother described these routines, I found myself thinking about how many women reading this article will recognize versions of these stories from their own families. Many of us remember our mothers or grandmothers talking about how much washing there used to be, how little time there was to sit down, and how the rhythm of the household was shaped by tasks that simply had to be done.
When everyday life was structured around care
For many women of previous generations, caring for others was not just one responsibility among many. It was the structure around which the entire day was organized.
Children required constant attention. Meals had to be prepared from scratch. Clothes had to be cleaned and mended. If someone in the family was ill, care happened at home. If an elderly relative needed help, that responsibility also belonged to the household.
In practical terms, this meant that the majority of a woman’s energy went into sustaining the daily functioning of the family. Domestic work required physical effort, patience, and endurance, and there was rarely a clear boundary between one task and the next.
Listening to my mother describe this world made something very clear to me. These women were not simply busy. Their lives were structured around an enormous amount of physical labor that left little room for anything else.
The question many women never had time to ask
Today, we often speak about career choices, personal development, purpose, or reinvention as if these questions have always been part of women’s lives. In reality, they are relatively recent questions.
When a day is filled with washing, cooking, caring for children, supporting family members, and maintaining the household, there is very little time left to imagine a different kind of future. The practical demands of life consume not only physical energy but also mental space.
This realization was one of the most striking aspects of my conversation with my mother. It reminded me that the women who came before us were not lacking in intelligence, curiosity, or ambition. Many of them simply did not have the time or the conditions required to explore those possibilities. Their lives were shaped by necessity.
How quickly life changed
One of the most remarkable aspects of women’s history is how quickly these realities have shifted. Technological changes alone transformed daily life in ways that are easy to underestimate today. Washing machines replaced hours of manual labor. Running water removed the need to carry buckets. Access to electricity simplified countless household tasks.
At the same time, education became more accessible, and professional opportunities expanded. Women gained the ability to earn their own income and participate more fully in public and professional life. These changes created something that had rarely existed before for women, time and cognitive space.
In many parts of the world, this transformation happened surprisingly recently. In the rural area of southern Spain where I live today, electricity and running water only became widely available in the 1980s. Within the span of a single generation, daily life moved from manual labor and limited infrastructure to modern convenience.
Freedom arrived before the role models
With these changes came new possibilities. Women could study, build careers, start businesses, and participate in leadership in ways that were almost unimaginable for many of their grandmothers. But this shift also created a new kind of challenge.
The previous generation lived within clearly defined roles. Those roles were restrictive, but they were also widely understood. The expectations placed on women were rarely questioned, and the structure of daily life was predictable.
Today, the situation is very different. Women have far more choices, but there is no single blueprint that explains how to navigate them. Many women are, in a sense, the first generation in their families to design lives that combine education, professional ambition, family responsibilities, and personal development. That freedom is extraordinary, but it also requires a kind of navigation that earlier generations never had to develop.
The challenge did not disappear, it changed
Recognizing how much women’s lives have changed does not mean that life has necessarily become simple or easy. Many women today are still deeply involved in caring roles. They raise children, support partners, and often help care for aging parents at the same time. What has changed is not the presence of responsibility, but the context in which those responsibilities are carried.
Domestic technology has removed a large part of the physical labor that once consumed entire days. Washing machines, disposable diapers, running water, and modern infrastructure have simplified many practical aspects of household life. But in their place, a different kind of pressure has emerged.
Many women today combine professional responsibilities with family life in ways that previous generations rarely did. They navigate demanding careers, complex schedules, and an ongoing stream of decisions about work, children, relationships, and personal direction. The result is that the exhaustion many women experience today often looks different from the exhaustion of their grandmothers.
In the past, fatigue came primarily from physical labor. Today, it is often cognitive and emotional. It is the weight of constant decision-making, the mental load of coordinating family life, and the effort required to move between multiple roles throughout the day.
For many women, the challenge is no longer the absence of possibility. It is learning how to carry many possibilities at the same time without losing energy, clarity, or direction.
Why these conversations matter
Conversations with older generations do more than preserve family memories. They help us understand how recent many of these changes are.
When we listen to our mothers and grandmothers describe their lives, we gain perspective on the freedoms that exist today. We also gain insight into the transitions that women are still navigating as those freedoms expand.
Women’s lives have changed dramatically in just two or three generations. The stories of those who came before us remind us not only of how much has shifted, but also of how much adaptation has been required along the way.
Perhaps the most valuable learning from these conversations is perspective. Understanding where we come from can soften the tendency to judge ourselves too harshly when life feels complex or overwhelming. It reminds us that the freedoms women hold today are still new in historical terms, and that every generation must learn how to inhabit them in its own way.
Progress did not remove the question of how women carry responsibility, ambition, care, and energy. It simply changed the landscape in which that question unfolds.
Read more from Helena Demuynck
Helena Demuynck, Transformation Catalyst for Purposeful Women
Helena Demuynck pioneers a movement of radical self-reclamation for women leaders, blending strategic coaching with cutting-edge neuroscience and body work to dismantle limiting beliefs at their core. The author of It’s Your Turn, she equips visionary women to architect legacies that defy societal scripts, merging professional mastery with soul-aligned purpose. Through her global platforms, The Boundary Breakers Collective and Power Talks for Remarkable Females, she sparks candid conversations that redefine leadership as a force for systemic change. A trusted guide for corporate disruptors and entrepreneurial innovators alike, Helena’s work proves that true impact begins when women lead from uncompromising authenticity.
