Another small world story. I was searching for insight about the “excellent wife” described in Proverbs 31 when I came across a sermon preached by John MacArthur Jr. in 1997. I once traveled with the MacArthurs and others to Israel. I never expected to run into the pastor again, but here he is. Using the Proverbs woman as the benchmark for her 90s counterpart, and presumably today’s, he writes:   

“What is the modern ’superwoman’?  Well, I suppose if we created a composite, it might go a little like this: 
– She works
– Builds her career
– Demands equal pay
– Refuses to submit to her husband–demanding equality with him in  
   everything
– Has an affair or two, and a divorce or two
– Exercises her independence
– Relies on her own resources
– Doesn’t want her husband or her children to threaten her personal goals
– Very often has her own bank account
– She hires a maid or a cleaning service
– Eats out at least 50% of the time, with her family or without
– Makes cold cereal and coffee the standard breakfast for everybody
– Makes quick frozen meals the usual dinner fare, if there is a dinner fare at home
– Expects her husband to do at least an equal share of housework
– She’s tanned, coiffured 
– Shopping to keep up the fashion trends making sure she can compete   
in the “attention-getting” contest.
– Puts the kids in a “Day Care” center
– Makes sure each one has a TV in his room or a radio and a CD player, so they are entertained all the time and don’t bother her–leaving them to the brainwashing of the immoral, materialistic society that pumps whatever it pumps through those media
– She is opinionated, usually, and likes to be heard from and is eager to fulfill her personal goals.”

Perhaps the “modern superwoman” is becoming passé. The wives and single women in my community fit the profile of Proverbs 31:30b ”but a woman who reverently and worshipfully fears the Lord, she shall be praised!”  The Amplified Bible