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.

I thought that the article was a worthwhile read, as Slaughter directly addresses a lot of issues I've thought about and grappled with since beginning law school and considering the career I want to pursue and the balance I want to strike in terms of how that career fits into my life.

-- CourtneyDoak - 25 Jun 2012

Thanks for sparking this conversation Courtney. When I read this article my first thought was "Slaughter should have edited her outline a lot more." I liked the gist of what she was saying but it was often hard to distill what her main sub-points and solutions were. I think she could have done a better job conveying her point using half the words.

As for the substance - I appreciate that she sparked a conversation about more flexible work schedules, changing the business model, and being vocal about not being able to have it all. I also like that she was bold enough to say that fundamentally women are different than men in terms of how much not being present for family life effects them (obviously there are exceptions to that statement). The piece of this article that I have found myself thinking about most is that my career path will probably look more like a set of stairs, than a straight uphill line. What I have been trying to take away from Prof. Moglen's class is that my career path is changeable and I am in control of it. I can do with my license what I want, and just because I made the decision to come to law school does not mean that I have to become a BigLaw lawyer. I can and probably will do that for a couple of years, but I calculated my end date and am now trying to figure out what I need to do to get to my next career after that end date comes. Hearing a successful woman say that most career paths will plateau at points, and then pick up speed again (potentially in a different direction) was comforting and helped make me feel like law school was less of a waste.

-- SkylarPolansky - 25 Jun 2012

Courtney,

I read the Slaughter article yesterday when you posted it and happened to come across this response by James Joyner while taking a break at work. Though the Joyner piece is obviously much shorter than Slaughter’s, I found that it highlighted many of the issues that I felt were problematic in the original article. Like Skylar mentioned, I thought Slaughter’s article was somewhat meandering and kept stressing the hope that “women can have it all,” when nearly every anecdote made it look like the closest thing to “having it all” was only a few steps away from miserable anyway. The Joyner article is a bit more cynical, and I guess I am too, which is why I like it better. Joyner specifically addresses Slaughter’s suggestion that women (and men) can maintain a better personal/work life balance if society changes—Joyner sees that “evolution” to be “impossible.”

“All things being equal, those willing to put 90 hours a week into their careers are going to get ahead of those willing to put in 60, much less 40. While there is any number of studies showing that working too many hours is actually counterproductive from an efficiency standpoint, there nonetheless is a rare breed of cat who can keep up a frenetic work schedule for years on end. And those workaholics are simply more valuable to the company, agency, or organization than those who clock out at 5. That means that those of us who choose to prioritize our children are going to get out-hustled by those without children, or those willing to let their children spend longer hours with a partner or childcare provider.”

Like Joyner, I would like to agree with Slaughter and see attitudes about careers move in a direction where a more fulfilling life is possible for anyone (male or female) that struggles to split time between career ambition and the desire to spend time on family or personal matters. For me, the most poignant illustration in the Slaughter article was the brief comparison between a working mother who must manage her time to care for her family and an athlete splitting time between work and training. Slaughter (using a rhetorical question) paints this picture such that the reader takes pity on the mother because she does the same amount of work as the runner without being championed in the same way.

I found myself fighting this imagery as I read. I did not pity the mother any more than the runner, but maybe that’s just because I know that I would view them equally as people who wanted to devote time to things they love. That said, I think that Joyner is right when he expresses doubt that “we'll ever create a culture that values family time as much as work time.” Even if work hours match up with school hours or companies make moves toward allowing employees to work regularly from home, there is always a tendency for people to compete in their careers. I feel like that tendency would be a harder thing to fight than Slaughter assumes and also something that is approached differently by every person.

-- AnneFox - 26 Jun 2012

Courtney,

Thanks for starting this discussion. While the article raised some interesting points, I ultimately felt unsatisfied with the scenario that Slaughter set up. When I read this response by Lori Gottlieb in The Atlantic I realized why. As Gottlieb criticizes, Slaughter comes off a bit like a petulant child, upset that she can't physically occupy two places at one time.

As Gottlieb writes, "If you choose Harvard because you like Cambridge better than New Haven, you have to give up Yale and your love of its drama department. If you order the salmon entrée at your favorite restaurant, you have to forgo ordering the steak entrée that night. If you choose to have kids, you have to give up a certain amount of your freedom for the next 18 years. Not just career freedom, but marital, economic and social freedom as well. Order up what you want -- Harvard, the wild salmon, the kids -- but know that there's no such option out there called "having it both ways." Gottlieb notes, "This isn't a feminist issue. This is Life 101."

We all know that choices involve sacrifice, so Slaughter's shock at the notion that she would miss her kids will working long hours in another city did not quite resonate with me. What I did find interesting - and what I would have liked to see her engage with instead of tiptoeing around - was the concept that this dichotomy has a different effect on women than it does on men.

It is obvious that the current state of affairs of our workplaces, and the difficult choices we're forced into, distress Slaughter, as it should all of us. However, Slaughter also seems to emphasize "having it all" as spending time with the family + a high-powered professional position, whereas I've always been taught that having it all is more a measure of happiness and value add to society than salary and prestige. With the facts as Slaughter lays them out, it would be difficult for any woman with a family to ever be truly happy with her choices without feeling as if there are opportunities she's deprived herself of, and I have to hope that that isn't the case. Right? Or do you disagree?

-- SherieGertler - 27 Jun 2012