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InterestingRead 11 - 30 Jun 2012 - Main.KatherineMackey
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| | I'm sure that some of you have already heard about or read this article - "Why Women Still Can't Have it All", written by Anne-Marie Slaughter and published in the July/August edition of The Atlantic - but I thought I'd share it for those who haven't, as it provides some thought-provoking commentary on issues that both women and men face in striving to attain fulfillment at work and at home.
Slaughter specifically highlights the legal industry, built on the foundation of the billable hour, and discusses the unique challenges that this model presents for a law firm associate seeking to establish a work/life balance with which he or she is satisfied. | | | In my view, we can only hope to get more workplace flexibility the more we demand it, and we'll only demand more flexibility when we start becoming more open about our obligations at home and in life. I don't mean we should start talking about our personal struggles to our boss or coworkers down the hall, but more in terms of supporting and adding to the conversation that Slaughter presented and that to a large extent Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook started. Because I don't mind seeing this as a women's issue, I'll just add that I also loved how Slaughter said women "have to stop accepting male behavior and male choices as the default and the ideal." I don't really want to get into how she stereotypes male behavior and male choices, but I think a lot of us women who have any work experience, be it before coming to law school or an internship, have felt the pressure of needing to be on par with the guys -- on an emotional level, on table talk discussions, whatever. That sentence, for me, was my takeaway because I have done and continue to do this. Her pointing this out has empowered me to change that.
-- LizzieGomez- 29 Jun 2012 | |
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> | I've really enjoyed reading everyone's contributions. Thank you. This article has been on my mind ever since I first read it and Gottlieb's response. At first, I was really sympathetic to Slaughter, but after thinking about it for a while, I have more complicated feelings about the article. On the one hand, I think it is excellent that she has forced a lot of people to think about and discuss this issue. I also think her recommendations for how to make changes are pretty sensible and seem like they could actually catch on, at least in certain fields. On the other hand, I don't feel particularly bad for Slaughter's dilemma. I actually think it is kind of crazy for the parent (either a mom or a dad) with kids at home to think that they can take a job that will require them to live in a different city during the week. I would have more sympathy for Slaughter if the job she left had been problematic in some way--if it didn't allow her to provide for her family or if it was soul-suckingly miserable. The job she had in Princeton sounded pretty great, though. She also had a supportive husband, generally supportive kids, and, apparently, a boss who did her best to make this incredibly high-powered job somewhat family friendly. The problem was that her family lived in a different city, and for various reasons, they couldn't move to DC with her. The problem of having a dream job located in a different city is not one that is described elsewhere in the article and it would not be solved by the suggestions she offers.
I do think that Slaughter's experience points to another employment-related problem. I would imagine she felt that she had to take this job because if she turned it down once, that would be it. She wouldn't get another chance to do it and her career might suffer in the future because she declined to take advantage of this opportunity. If we valued older workers more in all fields (look at how hard it has been for laid-off older people to find work after being laid off) and if we could give everyone the latitude to ramp up and ramp down their careers according to their needs and desires at different times in their life, then maybe Slaughter would have felt like she could have declined the job this time and the opportunity might present itself again.
I also wanted to share this speech that Nora Ephron gave at Wellesley's commencement in 1986. She also talks about having it all. Her conception is clearly different than Slaughter's and is a little more in line with the one mentioned in this discussion and in class. |
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