Independence and power does take the form of a paycheck. It is freedom from domestic ropes that bind and restrain your mental energy. I know this has all been said before. But never by me . It's also true what my mother taught me, what my grandmother, married at sixteen, came to learn herself toward life's end.
Independence is an individual notion.
Power comes strongest from the heart. For myself, the dependence on nannies to care for my children overpowered any independence I felt as a bread winner. That powerful feeling of pay could not balance out the power less feeling of being absent from home, unaware of the day's moods and motions, unavailable to my children. My quest for more control of my life backfired. I had never felt more vulnerable.