Discuss the presentation of motherhood in Top Girls by Caryl Churchill

Churchill’s juxtaposition of historical and contemporary settings in the play reveals an enduring demand for an institutional change in attitudes towards motherhood. Act two scene one, immediately following the dinner party, is set at the Top Girls agency in London. Marlene interviews a woman called Jeanine who desires a new job with advancement prospects in order to save money for marriage. In response to her engagement, Marlene enquires 'Does that mean you don’t want a long-term job, Jeanine? [...] Where do the [advancement] prospects come in?' Marlene is a figurehead in the ruthless and masculine world of work and symbolic of institutional bias against the domestic prospects of marriage and motherhood. She is quick to warn Jeanine that an engaged woman cannot be taken seriously as a long-term candidate in the workplace. Marlene’s institutionalised attitude towards motherhood is symbolic of how unaccommodating the workplace, and society at large, is of women’s attempts to negotiate motherhood and personal success. A woman’s potential to reproduce is a social and economic disadvantage; this idea collectively underpins the historical narratives presented in the opening act. The audience is subsequently catapulted into a far more realistic narrative. However, the examination of motherhood as a social burden persists as a prominent theme. Churchill’s use of temporal juxtaposition is highly effective in structurally foregrounding an examination of how female success has historically entailed an undesirable degree of self-sacrifice. Significantly, it demonstrates how contemporary society remains unaccommodating of female efforts and achievements outside of domestic expectations.