If there’s one thing working moms know, it’s that life isn’t fair sometimes. Managing the job and the home can take an emotional toll on anyone, and a new documentary aims to show how it impacts women, families, and society at large.
The film is called “Fair Play” and it follows women in their daily lives, including Emily Hay and her family who live in Metro Detroit. She is the Founder of Hay There Social Media, and first got involved in the project a few years back. Over social media, she met Eve Rodsky, the author of the book “Fair Play,” which gave rise to the documentary, who then introduced her to the producers of the documentary.
“‘Fair Play’ is a project that shines a light on the invisible labor in the home, which is historically held by women,” explains Hay. “Fair Play is based on the notion that all time is created equal. So my husband’s time isn’t more valuable to society, just because he is a man; it’s not more valuable than mine.”
Hay claims this way of thinking gave her a new life system that allowed her to run her house, and gave her hope.
While at first, she thought the cameras would be intrusive, she and her husband were committed to making a change in their family’s lives and said the whole process was less intrusive than she thought. Eventually, she said the crew felt like family.
After going through the project, Hay said she learned two major things: 1) taking on everything yourself isn’t something to be proud of, it actually hurts yourself and the whole family, and 2) change takes time. Initially, she thought she would see this drastic change from beginning to end like you do in several ‘makeover’ style shows, but it was more complex than that. Instead, she says she realized that “with real awareness comes change.”
For the full interview, watch the video above.
The documentary was produced by Hello Sunshine, a production company started by Reese Witherspoon, and can be found on Apple TV+