Sunday, June 24, 2012

Anne-Marie Slaughter Causes Stir with Essay "Why Women Still Can’t Have It All"

Anne-Marie Slaughter is causing an Internet stir of commentary with her new essay in The Atlantic, titled "Why Women Still Can't Have It All." The essay starts with a gripping summary of the essay's themes:

EIGHTEEN MONTHS INTO my job as the first woman director of policy planning at the State Department, a foreign-policy dream job that traces its origins back to George Kennan, I found myself in New York, at the United Nations’ annual assemblage of every foreign minister and head of state in the world. On a Wednesday evening, President and Mrs. Obama hosted a glamorous reception at the American Museum of Natural History. I sipped champagne, greeted foreign dignitaries, and mingled. But I could not stop thinking about my 14-year-old son, who had started eighth grade three weeks earlier and was already resuming what had become his pattern of skipping homework, disrupting classes, failing math, and tuning out any adult who tried to reach him. Over the summer, we had barely spoken to each other—or, more accurately, he had barely spoken to me. And the previous spring I had received several urgent phone calls—invariably on the day of an important meeting—that required me to take the first train from Washington, D.C., where I worked, back to Princeton, New Jersey, where he lived. My husband, who has always done everything possible to support my career, took care of him and his 12-year-old brother during the week; outside of those midweek emergencies, I came home only on weekends.

The article instantly sparked debates centering on the key premise and also Princeton's climate. Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse, for example, did a quick analysis that generated over 200 comments, here.

The New York Times' parenting blog did a Q&A with Slaughter, here.

The opinions just keep rolling down -- do a search and pick out the ones that strike your attitudinal fancy.

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