Why Women Still Can't Have It All

The Atlantic Magazine published an interesting article in its July/August issue by former Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, Anne-Marie Slaughter, about women's work-life balance.

This article has created quite a stir on the inter webs. Ms. Slaughter's thesis is that there are two kinds of thought when it comes to women and work-life balance, hers and those of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Ms. Sandberg is of the "higher-harder-faster" school while Ms. Slaughter argues women should not have to apologize for giving up powerful jobs to spend more time with their family.

I have to admit as a woman with ambitious professional goals, I have always wondered where a family would fit into those goals. Even if a bit scary, it is refreshing to hear a woman speak candidly about "why women still can't have it all"even if I still want to believe the mantra "we can have it all."

Is Ms. Slaughter right, should the workplace adapt to the changing roles of men and women, or should women continue to apologize for leaving jobs and careers to spend time with their families?

You do what? Where?

To fulfill my first reason for this blog I should explain what I am doing. To those of you who don’t know or haven’t read the About Me section, I am currently pursuing my Master of Public Policy focusing on International Development and Gender. My program requires students to complete a 10-week internship, so I am in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia interning with UN Women.

UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, was created to address serious challenges in the UN’s efforts to promote gender quality globally. It strives to be a champion for women and girls, providing them with a powerful voice at the global, regional and local levels.

Gender is an interesting area of development. Gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every society, including developed nations. Today most of the world’s women face huge barriers to equality, such as traditional views and attitudes, lack of access to basic education, health care, decent work and often face occupational segregation and gender wage gaps. Many women continue to suffer violence and discrimination, and women are continually under-represented in political and economic decision-making processes that could allow them to create change towards women.

My task this summer is to perform an assessment of the current status of women’s political participation and leadership in Ethiopia. I am working to assess not only the activities and results, but also the impact these initiatives have had. For example, if women were given scholarships to gain additional skills did that education result in better jobs. Or did a certain training result in increase enforcement of women’s rights.* Finally, I am trying to coordinating with other UN agencies to understand their current support of this issue and identify the gaps in support UN Women could potentially fill.

I am not going to lie; I feel a bit underprepared and a lot overwhelmed. But with that said, I am happy to be in an internship that allows me to gain practical experience, and develop a better understanding of development work. Not to mention I get to live in Africa for three months, BONUS!

Mom, I hope this helps you explain to your friends what I am actually doing.

*These examples are not real situations but fictitious situations from past experiences.