Ep 4. Anne-Marie Slaughter: Caregivers and Breadwinners
“We say we care about caregiving but actually people who take time off to give care pay a real career price”
-- Anne-Marie Slaughter
Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter is the President and CEO of New America, a think tank and civic enterprise dedicated to renewing America in the Digital Age. She is also Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. From 2009–2011 she served as director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State, the first woman to hold that position. Anne-Marie is the author of the ground-breaking 2012 Atlantic article “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” which shaped the national conversation on the scarcity of women in executive positions.
Stew and Anne-Marie talk about how her views have changed since that article’s publication in 2012. They discuss the central challenges women face striving to both raise children and advance in their careers. Anne-Marie describes how the breakdown of traditional gender roles is creating new opportunities for both women and men in our society to have greater freedom to choose to be caregivers and breadwinners. Finally, Stew and Anne-Marie examine how Millennials’ attitudes about work, family life, and technology will have a large impact on society.
Listen below or on Stitcher, SoundCloud, iTunes, or Google Play
Show Notes (times when new topics start)
2:40. Caregiving and breadwinning. Many women, and men, feel a tension between being a good caregiver for their children and advancing in their careers.
8:50. Growing number of stay-at-home dads. Traditional family gender roles are changing in our society. Increasingly, dad is the caregiver and mom is the breadwinner.
17:00. Too few women at the top. The traditional “rise or out” corporate executive tracks excludes women who want to take years off to care for children
23:15. Millennials. This age group has dramatically different worldviews than generations before. They are deeply connected through technology and ready to shape the workplace in a radically new way.
Selected Links
Slaughter's Atlantic article ("Why Women Still Can't Have it All")
Rosin's Atlantic article ("The End of Men" - mentioned in the show)
Mundy's NY Times article ("The Media Has a Woman Problem" - mentioned in the show)
New America's gender-parity initiative page, which deals with topics discussed by Slaughter in the podcast.
Check out Slaughter's new book Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family.
Transcript of this interview.
Videos of Slaughter speaking with Stew Friedman at Authors@Wharton and on Knowledge@Wharton.
Follow Anne-Marie on Twitter @SlaughterAM
Share your questions, ideas, and stories by tweeting @StewFriedman.