Let’s take a peak into Manhattan. To be more exact, we’re looking at the area that is the Upper East Side (north of 63rd Street and south of 94th Street – do not get this confused). Here live the housewives of Manhattan’s bankers, hedge fund managers and traders. Whilst many of them have degrees from brilliant universities, they do not hold jobs or work. Instead, they are the faces of their families, the people who prop their husbands and children onto the next step of the social ladder.

But, as glamorous as this life sounds (who doesn’t wish they could go from luncheons at The Plaza to a private gym session, to a spa and then meet the kids at home where the nanny will do the homework?) it’s the men who still hold the power and the money, because the women don’t actually work.

In a new book written by Wednesday Martin called Primates of Park Avenue, the ups and downs of the New York housewives are followed. In it, also, the “wife bonus” is explained.

It might be hammered out in a pre-nup or post-nup, and distributed on the basis of not only how well her husband’s fund had done, but her own performance — the same way their husbands were rewarded at investment banks. In turn, these bonuses were a ticket to a modicum of financial independence and participation in a social sphere where you don’t just go to lunch, you buy a $10,000 table at the benefit luncheon a friend is hosting.

So, how do they get that bonus?

Why, they support their husbands unequivocally. They make sure they look good by eating next-to-nothing and exercising. They make sure the kids are getting into top schools. They organise luncheons and galas and bake cakes for bake sales.

One Upper East Side psychoanalyst told [Martin] that, other than the world of professional modelling, she had never seen a culture where women were under so much pressure to be thin and beautiful – and where she had encountered so many eating disorders.

The women are “anxious and hypervigilant about being perfect wives and mothers”, but that’s just what they do. And they are rewarded for it.

I wonder if that’s what Constantia is like?

[Source: The Telegraph]