Ann-Marie Slaughter’s article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” targets a highly privileged demographic. The people she discusses are, as described, “highly educated, well-off women who are privileged enough to have choices in the first place.” These women have everything in grasp – the dream job and fairytale family – yet are denied the time and societal support to fully reap their benefits.
While it is important to address how these women often face more complex hurdles in achieving work/life balance than their male counterparts, the call to afford these women the ability to “have it all” is not a universally appealing campaign if it is framed to mainly benefit this small and privileged demographic, or even to benefit women alone. Slaughter would make a much more compelling case for change if she premised her article primarily around what society loses when women step back, rather than what these women lose out on when life imbalances force them to choose between family and career.
Hard work and family values are fundamental American credo. However, the hurdles working women face when trying to achieve work/life balance make fulfilling these tenets a zero-sum game. Society loses out when our work and family structures undermine our own philosophies.
Gender disparities in work/life balance have practical ramifications. The women in Slaughter’s piece are uniquely equipped to contribute to our society in extraordinary ways. Yet, when they are forced to decide between work and family because our systems aren’t conducive to balancing the two, the greatest problem is not that they can’t have it all. The greatest problem is that they can’t give it all.
Women’s equity is not just a means to better work/life balance for elite women. It’s a means to stronger families and a stronger society — a cause everyone can fight for.