Atlantic (article) in a Dixie cup

In my last post (Having it out with having it all) I wrote about Anne-Marie Slaughter’s recent article in The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.”  I said that she had some terrific points, but I didn’t elaborate on them.  You should read the whole article, but here is a quick summary of the things I thought were particularly smart:

A suggestion from an assistant of hers: “MAKE SCHOOL SCHEDULES MATCH WORK SCHEDULES.”  How amazingly different would a working parent’s life be if this were the case?

Slaughter’s list of “The Half-Truths We Hold Dear”:

Slaughter writes:

Let’s briefly examine the stories we tell ourselves, the clichés that I and many other women typically fall back on when younger women ask us how we have managed to “have it all.” They are not necessarily lies, but

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Having it out with having it all

The Atlantic recently published Anne-Marie Slaughter’s smart and thoughtful article Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.

But before I start in on this, I feel like I should add some disclaimers:

1. I’ve only been a mother for 16 months.
2. I have not had a career “track” that would be permanently in jeopardy if I left for a while to focus on mothering; I’m a writer who can make her own hours and work in her own home.
3. I have a kick-ass husband who shares in our domestic duties, loves being a dad, and is fully supportive of my writing work.
4. I’m pretty tired today from having gotten up early all this week to do said writing work.

And it’s that last point that helps me say, No, women can’t have it all.  No one can.

It’s not the tiredness (and accompanying crankiness) that allows me to say this.  It’s the simple fact that

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