Having it all? What exactly does that mean? Last week, I read Anne-Marie Slaughter’s post on The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All.” After sharing it out, I found that many people had very strong feelings about this post. Here are some of the comments from friends:
“I think that having a job in Washington while your family remains in another city, and you only see them on the weekends, is stressful for most people, so it’s not surprising she wouldn’t want to do it for more than two years. Women and men need a lot of support in the family to handle a job that demands a lot of hours. Someone like Sheryl Sandberg apparently has that.” -Louis Gudema
“This is a no brainer for any mother who works outside the home. I am constantly stealing time from work to attend to family and vice versa. Taking care of myself falls last on the list. Read/skimmed this article while also entertaining my daughter and felt guilty for splitting my attention. And there’s also a report I should be drafting. “-Sarah Long Holland
“Everyone–man or woman need a wife to make it work! Where to get t those these days?!“-Kelly Brillant
“I think one of the biggest problems in this country is the attitude towards my generation that we are all slackers and if we’d just try harder we could all find jobs. (Note: this doesn’t apply to just women, but also men of my generation as well) As for it being harder for a woman, I think it’s less that it’s harder for us and more that men aren’t expected to play as big a role in their children’s lives (which is idiotic IMO). Everyone needs a schedule that allows them to spend evenings and weekends at home, whether they have children or not. Our society has this mentality that if you aren’t working at the crack of dawn and going until you drop of exhaustion (after 57 cups of coffee) then you are lazy. There needs to be a big attitude shift about work ethic in this country, unfortunately, I don’t see it happening. ” -Bailey Skiles
Though I thought this to be a really great post, I think there are some key things missing from it. Here is a short video on my take of how we CAN have it all:
What are your thoughts? Do you think that Anne-Marie is right? Do you think there are ways that we can work together to build community and make the workplace a little friendlier and more amiable to the working parent? I would love to hear from you. Feel free to share your thoughts.
