Who needs a man?

It occurred to me while reading Piaf, that one striking similarity between Coco Chanel and Edith Piaf is their reliance on men in their rise to be the successful, independent women that they appear to be in history. Of course, they have different views on love: Chanel is practically indifferent to it, while Piaf has a strong need for it. But I was disheartened by this pattern. I refuse to believe that a woman can only come to success with a man's help, but we have seen so many examples showing this to be a viable and likely option.

That being said, there is always the excuse that it was "a different time." We are all reliant on other people, be it our parents, our professors, our mentors, or our peers to help us learn all we need and to help us find the opportunities to become successful in life. But this pattern of men helping women become successful, I suppose makes me suspicious. Perhaps I should be congratulating these men on not having the misplaced belief that so many people did that women were not equal to men, but I can't help wondering if Chanel and Piaf could have become the legends that they were without the help of men. I don't think they would have. And that both worries and disheartens me.

I do think that there should be a true balance and equality between the genders, so I'm not by any means proposing that I intend to find success in my future career entirely without the input of men. I don't believe that to be a realistic or ideal pathway. But what bothers me, is that it may not be possible. I would love to be proven wrong, but it seems that, in terms of career success, men have been able to pursue their desired path in a mixed gender setting or with only men as contributors, but I cannot seem to think of an example for women doing the same thing, at least to the same extent.

These are questions I intend to think about and struggle with further, if anyone would care to join me.