Hi so, first of all, not just women are sub - I have several male sub friends. I think it would be very interesting to hear from them too as it's such an underground subculture because our society looks down on them.
Secondly, submissives have got lots of power! It's us who draw the lines put limits, say what we'd do or not, and basically the D types get to act our fantasies...
Finally, yes, I work - I am well educated and have a position of leadership (classic submissive cliche' alert! Boss in the world and servant in one's love life) - I run a department working, broadly speaking, in communications; of course I can see friends on my own - although my partner is my favourite person to hang out with, we are best friends and have got lot of interests in common such as music and cycling, I have my own hobbies (yoga, painting furniture, generally wellbeing stuff, I was very active in a small left wing activists' group and I was going there on my own although this is one of the things I received guidance to stop because it was stressing me out so much and making me feel inadequate).
My family well that's a different matter entirely as there have been instances of dysfunction/violence/abuse when I was underage (I'm aware this is another cliche' - I wish it was not so of course) so I am very low contact with them. They live far away anyway.
Today I'm really cooked as I had to present my team's work to the whole division, but tomorrow I'll jot down a nuanced AMA - do I have your permission to tag you? If not I'll just refer to 'other mumsnetters' and keep it vague.
Thank you for helping me to reflect 😀