As women gain more and more equality in the workplace and at home, the question of whether they can truly “have it all” naturally arises. The short answer is no; women can not “have it all” in the sense that they want. No person has the time to be the perfect mother/homemaker while also being in a high-powered, executive-level job.
The longer answer is that no one, regardless of gender, can have it all. Men in the same high powered positions do not have the “perfect” home lives either. It is simply not possible to work a highly demanding job, cook dinner every night, and make it to every dance recital and baseball game. The difference is that those high powered men are satisfied with this compromise. They don’t mind working late some days and missing a game or two or having to pick up their own dinner on the way home while the babysitter feeds the kids. They can still have a great relationship with their kids and be a loving and present father without being at home every night of the week.
Women can have this too, but it’s not the “having it all” that they really want. In order to get the jobs and equality women hope for, they need to start accepting this reality: working a demanding job means seeing your children less. Like most things in life, it’s about finding a balance. For women that may mean feeling as though they are not seeing their children or working enough, but it is a compromise that has to be made.