A WOMAN’S WORK IS NEVER DONE
“A Woman’s Work Is Never Done”: Three Successful Women Explain How To Do It All
This week, NY1 is honoring Women’s History Month with reports highlighting the hectic lives of New York City women, called “A Woman’s Work Is Never Done.” In the following report, NY1’s Farnoosh Torabi introduces us to three very different women, and explains how they manage to do it all.
It’s 6:30 in the evening and attorney Rosemarie Arnold is capping off her 10-hour workday on Long Island with dual diligence, prepping for tomorrow’s courtroom brawl and playing mom to two young girls.
Meantime in Manhattan, Victoria Imperioli plays double duty. She’s a mom of three and runs her own business as a full-time interior designer.
“We spend a lot of time with the kids, even bringing them to work. We try to incorporate them as much as we can into our daily routines,” she says.
That’s even if it means sharing a hobby.
“My husband, myself and the three children, we all do taekwondo,” Imperioli says.
And in Brooklyn, school psychologist Michelle Morancie puts in a solid eight hours mentoring at P.S. 279, followed by private appointments in her home office, then onto freelancing articles and making music.
It’s a pastime she picked up after finishing treatment for breast cancer.
“I decided that I was going to do something that I always wanted to do,” she says. “I love it. I don’t like to perform, but I love it.”
And this single mom’s favorite time of day is when she spends time with her boys.
“It was very hard when they were in school and they had all these activities, oh my God,” Morancie says.
Has life gotten harder or just different?
“It’s different now, because I’m now able to focus on me a little bit,” she says.
“I’d say she’s pretty impressive, all things considered,” says Anthony Chin-Quee, Moancie’s eldest son. “Everything she’s gone through, everything we’ve gone through as a family, putting two kids through college with the next one on the way.”
Three women: Different backgrounds, different lifestyles, different careers, yet each the face of the modern day woman – doing it all and doing it well.
“You have to have a great schedule intact, which includes your work and your family. I try not to separate it so much,” Imperioli says. “You have to place your life into some kind of service. It has to be meaningful.”
For Imperioli, her latest endeavor summarizes just that. Studio Dante is a non-profit theatre she founded with her father and her husband, “Sopranos” actor Michael Imperioli.
“You can educate people through theatre, and that was basically why we started the project,” she says.
“I wanted an office. It’s as simple as that,” Morancie says. “I wanted an office. I wanted to be a school psychologist and I wanted people to come see me at my office.”
And for Arnold, her dream of becoming an attorney stemmed from her childhood in Washington Heights.
“I wanted to make a lot of money,” she says. “When we grew up I was very poor. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment with the seven of us.”
What advice do she wish she would have had?
“Really, there’s only one thing, and that is maybe start a little younger to have kids,” she says. “I think it’s tiring at my age – I’m 43 – to have a 3-year-old.”
Who was Arnold’s role model?
“My mother,” she says. “This woman was under 35, had six children ages six to 18-months when her husband died.”
“I think a lot of what I learned I learned from my mom,” Morancie adds.
I sense Victoria had a similar relationship with your mom growing up, and she responded, “Absolutely. I still do. She put me to school having 20 different jobs, needless to say. She sacrificed tremendously, but she is a very strong person.”
And so their lives meet; three unique women, their work seemingly never done, but always finding time for others, inspired by the women who gave them time growing up.
– Farnoosh Torabi
Source: NY1 News