From The Barbizon to the boardroom — how women built a room of their own.
Episode Description
What happens when women are told where they can live, work, or dream — and still find ways to redefine freedom and ambition?
In this episode of The Women’s Current, historian Paulina Bren joins hosts Sylvia Beckerman and Molly Wadzeck to talk about The Women Behind the Walls — a conversation about freedom, ambition, and how women continue to redefine both.
The Barbizon wasn’t just a hotel. It was a launchpad. From Sylvia Plath to Joan Didion, generations of women crossed its threshold with dreams that defied convention. And yet, their stories remind us how creativity and ambition can thrive even within limits.
In addition, they look at how women defined success in their own time.
Together, Sylvia, Molly, and Paulina examine what it meant to claim space, purpose, and ambition — then and now. Their conversation also explores how ambition itself has evolved — from a quiet act of defiance to a public declaration of purpose — and how women continue to define success on their own terms.
Meanwhile, social expectations kept evolving. From mid-century “good-girl” expectations to today’s pressure to have it all, this conversation asks: How do we redefine ambition without losing ourselves — and is the tide finally turning?
About Paulina Bren
Paulina Bren is an award-winning writer, historian, and cultural critic. She is the author of The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book and finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her most recent book She-Wolves: The Untold Story of Women on Wall Street was named one of the ten best non-fiction books of 2024 by the Kirkus Review.
Paulina teaches at Vassar College, where she focuses on women’s voices and representation in postwar society. Her earlier book, The Greengrocer and His TV: The Culture of Communism After the 1968 Prague Spring, also received multiple awards for its original look at life behind the Iron Curtain.
Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and BBC Culture. Through her work, Paulina continues to explore how women’s private lives reflect broader public change — from The Barbizon’s pink walls to today’s glass ones.
Ultimately, the episode reminds us that redefining ambition is still a collective effort.
Episode Highlights
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The Barbizon as a mirror of women’s ambition and constraint
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How media and myth shaped female identity in post-war America
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Redefining ambition across generations — then and now
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Finding freedom within (and beyond) the walls society builds
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Why mentorship and intergenerational support still matter
Connect with Paulina Bren
Website: www.paulinabren.com
She-Wolves: The Untold Story of Women on Wall Street & The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free — available wherever books are sold
Listen & Watch
Audio: The Women’s Current
Watch the full episode on YouTube