The Butterfly Effect (ePub)

Since the eighteenth century, feminists have been fighting for equal rights with men, while men like Bert Morris and George Broadbent have been fighting to maintain their male dominance and privilege. Caught in the crossfire is Doreen – daughter of Bert, long-suffering wife of George. She has watched her mother submitting silently to her father and has been taught that a woman's role is to satisfy her husband. She has relinquished her dream of becoming a psychologist and has settled for a 'small life', suppressing her frustrations while crying on the lavatory, or escaping to the movies and dreaming of Mykonos, while self-medicating with Ouzo.

Bert and George blame 'German' Greer and The Female 'Transvestite' and a bunch of angry 'ball breakers' who think they are better than men and seek to emasculate them. While they question men's roles in a changing world, Doreen recognises that she has been emotionally repressed and abused all her life and escapes to England to become a carer.

She slowly metamorphoses into a confident, independent woman while George, following a visit from Doreen's sister, Shazza and her partner, Les, begins to reassess his beliefs and to acknowledge his failure as a husband. He spends more time with his son and daughter, attends to the maintenance issues in the home and even relinquishes the La-Z-boy chair that Doreen loathes (although he has spotted another one in Furniture City).

While a reformed George waits expectantly for his wife's return, she contemplates her future. Will she risk sacrificing her newfound freedom and self confidence for an uncertain future as Mrs Broadbent?