25 (non-Bravo) real life housewives who are pretty badass

Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Rhimes is the creative genius and ultimate gift-giver that brought us such cultural juggernauts as Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder. (She’s also got a pretty cool-looking firemen spin off that might just be a new fave in the form of Station 19.) She’s one of the only women of color to run her own show on a major network, and she’s pretty much made more money at nighttime soaps than the rest of us will see our entire lives.

Not only is Rhimes among the  most influential cultural creators, she is also an amazing mother to her three daughters. She has been very open about the struggle to balance work life and motherhood, and never shies away from saying the hard stuff. But she offers some of the best advice to working women in the above interview with Oprah: “give yourself permission to not feel guilty.”

She is much more concerned about offering her daughters a happy life than working to maintain some antiquated and arbitrary “balance.” She is adamant about offering her daughters the qualities of strength, persistence and magnanimity, instead of the ideals of sacrifice and martyrdom.

These ideals come through loud and clear in the amazing female characters she’s created. Rhimes manifests, through Meredith Grey and Annalise Keating, the struggles of being a woman, a mother and a wife. Although Shonda Rhimes might not be what you think of when you think “housewife,” she’s worked so hard at making a home for her family, while also creating extraordinary things for the rest of us.