What is "having it all"? This is typically understood to mean being a women with children and a happy family life while also having a successful career.
Not only does this phrasing focus the life-balance discussion on privileged women (ignoring those struggling with multiple jobs, etc.), it also isolates women as distinct from men. There are sacrifices no matter who you are and what choices you make, but we don't talk about men having it all or not. As far as I can tell, no man or woman is perfect at everything.
We want each individual or family to be able to choose to balance their life or lives as they see fit. We want them to be able to choose their family structure, domestic responsibilities, social obligations, career paths, and hobbies. Just like we budget money between housing, food, clothing, and any number of things, each individual budgets their time and efforts.
Having it all is a useless metric, not to mention that it's incredibly ambiguous. No matter your choice, using this terminology can appear as a judgement to those who allocate their time and efforts differently, which is basically everyone else.
Not only does this phrasing focus the life-balance discussion on privileged women (ignoring those struggling with multiple jobs, etc.), it also isolates women as distinct from men. There are sacrifices no matter who you are and what choices you make, but we don't talk about men having it all or not. As far as I can tell, no man or woman is perfect at everything.
We want each individual or family to be able to choose to balance their life or lives as they see fit. We want them to be able to choose their family structure, domestic responsibilities, social obligations, career paths, and hobbies. Just like we budget money between housing, food, clothing, and any number of things, each individual budgets their time and efforts.
Having it all is a useless metric, not to mention that it's incredibly ambiguous. No matter your choice, using this terminology can appear as a judgement to those who allocate their time and efforts differently, which is basically everyone else.
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