Preview

Why Women Can T Have It All Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
744 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Women Can T Have It All Analysis
Can anyone have “it all”, the mansion, the awesome job and all the other luxuries of life? Yes they can, but it comes with some sacrifices as well. Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” argues that there are many difficulties in the workplace as well as home life that make it harder for women than men to “have it all”. Richard Dorment, author of “Why Men Can’t Have It All,” argues that men have it just as hard as women and are just as equally justified to say that they can’t “have it all”. Although Dorment and Slaughter both provide fairly convincing arguments on balancing work and family time and stresses of the gender, Slaughter’s argument was more persuasive with her use of examples, credibility in the topic, and use of her own personal experience.

**************Anne-Marie Slaughter uses her use of examples to further the argument that women can’t “have it all”. “My mother built a successful and rewarding career as artist largely after her children left home—and after being told in her twenties that she could not go to
…show more content…
Anne-Marie Slaughter’s is the president and CEO of the America Foundation, “a nonprofit, non partisan public policy institute,” according to its website (Graph 676). Slaughter is a high ranking official of her company, and she truly knows the difficulties of managing a company and balancing her family too. Richard Dorment unfortunately doesn't have any credibility for this topic. Richard Dorment is an editor at Esquire Magazine. He has been a guest on television and radio programs including the Today Show and CNN Newsroom. Richard Dorment has no credibility in the topic because he is just a editor. He doesn’t own the company he works for and doesn’t understand the true stress that comes with managing a whole company and “having it all” and balancing a family

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Anne-Marie Slaughter and Ellen Ullman are two highly successful women in their respective fields. With each one of these ladies having their own struggles rather it’s with dealing with men that just do not want to give them the recognition they deserve or deciding on which life choice to make continue working in a high profile job or being a stay at home mom. While both women held positions at their jobs that women usually do not hold. Both women endured criticism in the work place.…

    • 214 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Can women really have it all? According to author Anne-Marie Slaughter, who wrote “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” published in 2012 in The Atlantic, believes this way of thinking is an “airbrushed reality” (87). These words of Slaughter are the unfortunate truth for many women working today. Slaughter writes about her decision to leave her high powered job in Washington to spend time at home with her children. It is a looked-down-upon choice by many in the business world, but one she made all the same. After careful examination of her options, she decided that she was indispensable to her children but not to her job. She reaches her audience by using ethos through personal career background. She shares antidotes to pull-in pathos,…

    • 1356 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why I Want A Wife Summary

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The following essay, “Why I Want a Wife,” appeared in Ms. Magazine in 1972 during the feminist movement in the United States. In this essay, Brady takes a satirical and humorous look at what it means to be a wife and mother. Brady was thinking of a longtime friend who appeared on the scene, fresh from a recent divorce and was looking for another wife (263). It was in that moment it occurred to Brady, as a wife and mother, which she also would like to have a wife. She first starts out by saying, “Why do I want a wife?” (263). She lists most of the duties, expectations and demands of the husband and society that are unfairly unjust to women and it is underappreciated and unrecognized.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The cases Friedan brought up in the first chapter confirms how unhappy women are, pointing towards feminine fulfillment being met early, lack of energy, and “housewife fatigue.”2 The goals women were expected to make were to marry early, have children, and act as a modern housewife. Per Friedan’s observations, most women typically didn’t have the time or experience to set their own personal goals. With goals as a woman having been sorted out incredibly early into a woman’s timeline, it’s difficult to find a source of satisfaction for the next decade or more without setting any new goals aside from what society has expected. In addition, housewives are being taxed daily. With many husbands working a 9-5, their wives are left to sort out the…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Friedan points out that the average age of marriage was dropping and the birthrate was increasing for women throughout the 1950s, yet the widespread unhappiness of women persisted, although American culture insisted that fulfillment for women could be found in marriage and housewifery; this chapter concludes by declaring "We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: 'I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.'…

    • 2282 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Iconic 50s

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When you think of the American dream, you often think about a mother and/or wife staying home all day caring for the house, cooking, and caring for the children, while the man is hard at work in order to earn a dollar, and is rewarded by coming home to a cooked meal and a loving family. This stereotype was developed in the 1950s; however, there were women who held jobs. "30 percent of married women held jobs" and "working wives outnumbered bachelor girls two to one" (302). Because of the booming economy and a "large number of job opportunities", women have decided to come out of their homes and work alongside their husbands (303). Once women began working, the American dream slowly began to transform into the one we have today. Today, both mother and father usually work and provide for the family; however, the mother still tends to do house work in most cases. The 1950s shaped the American dream into what it is today.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Judy Brady’s essay, “I Want a Wife” was first published in Ms. Magazine in 1971 in support of the feminist movement; initially the essay was written in the hopes that it would create public awareness of the unfair expectations created by the wife stereotype. During the 1970’s American popular culture, women seemed to have no identity besides that of being a family caretaker. In fact, the mere idea of a woman procuring a career was seen as a radical notion throughout the course of history. In addition to being the family caretaker, the wife was generally expected that after a woman had earned her desired education she was to marry, have children and become a loyal servant to her family. Moreover, this expectation was engrained in the minds of the American public by way of popular television shows like “Leave it to Beaver”, which projected the prototypical image of what a wife was expected to be inside the living room of every home. Along with the wife being expected to be the loyal servant, she was also anticipated to be sensitive to the husband's sexual needs. For example, the wife was expected to have sex with her husband even if she was tired or not in the mood. These projections became the accepted norm of how a woman should represent herself once she became a wife/mother. That is, society thinks that the responsibilities of raising children and maintaining a stable home are often solely placed upon the wife; however this kind of stability can only be upheld with the help of the husband and wife together.…

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Tv's Gender Roles

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In the 21st century, women must have a career and job to support a family compared to the 1950’s when women had the choice to be a stay at home mother or have a career. Spigel states, “Like Donna Reed, who sacrificed her nursing career for life with Dr. Alex Stone […]” (Spigel 224), the author is indicating that most women during the 1950’s decided to be a homemaker because that was what society expected of them. Television emphasizes and values the role of the ideal wife and a homemaker. Furthermore, The Donna Reed Show illustrated wives to be marginal at home and central to the economy. Haralovich states, “In her value to the economy, the homemaker was at once central and marginal” (Haralovich 70). Basically, women’s labor in the home was highly valued and was given social satisfaction by consuming products to live the suburban American dream. However, women roles from today have changed due to the shift in gender roles in the American society. The “Study Date” episode of Good Luck Charlie is a perfect illustration of an ideal wife and women in today’s society. For example, Amy has to work, take care of her family, by cooking and cleaning. There is now a huge pressure for women to go to college, get a career, and to get married and raise a family. Some women now are breadwinners and some men are stay at home dads. Due to economic pressures from society, both spouses have to work to maintain…

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Men are more comfortable with their wives going to work than they are willing to help out at home more. In the 1950s, women were expected to be good housewives. Women were not to go college and if they did it was only to meet their future husbands. Women were expected to stay home and do housework and take care of the children. Ferber says, “Housework and childcare continued to be viewed as the women’s responsibility whether or not she also had a paid job” (2). Mothers today are arguing back and forth over the “Mommy Wars”. The “Mommy Wars” is where working mothers are criticizing stay at home mothers for not working and in turn, non-working mothers criticize working mothers for not spending enough of family time together. Rather than debating the “Mommy Wars” some women are complaining of having to work “the second shift” once they get home from work. The second shift refers to when a mother has worked a full day and then goes home to do just about the same amount of work by cooking dinner, doing laundry, cleaning the house, and taking care of the kids. Ferber says, “Women do fifty-two hours a week in housework and child rearing while the men do eleven hours a week” (2). Men should be contributing to the housework more, regardless if the wife works or stays at home. The resource theory, proposed by Robert Blood and David Wolfe, “Focuses on the importance of accumulated resources of a spouse as the source of power within a marriage, which is likely to be used to make the other partner do more of the housework” (3, Ferber). The more control women have at work the more control they have at…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    For generations it has been a man’s responsibility to provide for his family. Women were rarely even accepted into the workforce until after WWII. However, government encouragement for women to enter the labor force during the war, in combination with the rising feminist movement started a tidal wave movement of women pursuing higher education and careers. Women currently make up the majority of the workforce and 60% of all college graduates (Rosin). Donnalyn Pompper, a professor at Temple University, expands on this further in her article about the masculine gender role conflict theory. She explains that that after WWII, the increased female presence in the labor force “destabilized the breadwinner role as a basis for male identity, and now men must accept working wives and a more active parental role” (Pompper). And while it is true that the shift to equal opportunity in the…

    • 1791 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people have different perspectives about who can have the balance between their houses and jobs. In “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” Anne-Marie Slaughter makes a point in her essay which is that women cannot have it all. However, in “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All,” Richard Dorment responds to her essay with a different opinion saying that men cannot have it all, and he makes arguments to prove his opinion. To understand his opinion, we are going to look at his points, how did he make the points, and my opinion on his arguments.…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    White Women Research Paper

    • 1711 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Men “…say they will work to improve women’s status, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they cant or wont support the idea of lessening men’s” (McIntosh, 278). In relation to intersectionality, all women have the common junction of being oppressed under a man’s higher status, however, being a white woman in comparison to a black woman; there is now a change in status. While white privileged feminists fought for increased access to professional jobs they ignored the fact that women of color and women of the working class were being overworked. “Eventually, it became a matter of women being divided by forces of labor because of how society’s conformities shaped them. Rather than fighting to change men’s oppressive dependence on women at home, they instead focused on the fight for higher status among races” (Student Article). Because these gender differences shaped how a woman should act, it caused a rift between women. They ultimately fell prey to the “divide and conquer” strategy causing women not to realize that they all share the same oppressor. However, in the article “When Mom and Dad Share it all”, portrays couples who overcome opposite sides of the spectrum and share equal roles in the household. They ultimately defied the stereotype of women staying at home while their husbands were out working. This is a problem because as we continue on, “either we engage in racism/sexism or play a role in supporting to help because there is no neutral in this matter” (Class Discussion). Not only that but Audre Lorde stated “…we must recognize differences among women who are our equals, neither inferior nor superior, and devise ways to use each other’s difference to enrich our visions and our joint struggles” (Lorde…

    • 1711 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gail Collins argues, “The Feminine Mystique is a very specific cry of rage about the way intelligent, well-educated women were kept out of the mainstream of American professional life and regarded as little more than a set of reproductive organs in heels” (1). At a time when women were at their academic peak with the highest college attendance and graduation rates, one would assume that women would confidently take on more important roles in the workforce, especially following the Rosie the Riveter campaign that empowered female workers during World War II; however, women took on more domestic roles in higher percentages, forgetting the progress in women’s rights their mothers and grandmothers worked so hard to achieve. Louis Menand explains, “When Friedan was writing her book, the issue of gender equality was barely on the public’s radar screen. On the contrary: it was almost taken for granted that the proper goal for intelligent women was marriage” (2). A large contributor to this decision is the false sense of accomplishment women were promised in return for their spousal duties. Critic Catherine Judd explains, “Friedan notes that suburban housewives have been told by the media, by the medical community, and by educators that they…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘Why men and women still can't have it all?’, a question battling the gender odds in many aspects and a question that is yet to be discussed. In her 2012 article, "Why Women Still Can't Have It All?", Anne- Marie Slaughter a successful career-oriented woman discusses her struggle in being away from her family while working in Washington and the reasons behind women not having it all. After she left her job as the Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, she returned home with the desire to be with her family leading her to write the article. On the other hand, Richard Dorment in his article, "Why Men Still Can't Have It All?", also explains that men go through the same boat as women do and highlights his opinions on Slaughter's…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thus, in an attempt to further promote equal opportunity between men and women, a second wave of feminism emerged between 1968 and the 1980’s, which can be best characterized by women’s refusal to acclimate to society’s rigid belief of what an ideal woman should be or act like (Mancia, Class, 12/2). This problem is perfectly illustrated in the Feminine Mystique, written by Betty Friedan, in which Friedan discussed the unhappiness of many young women in the 1950’s and early 1960’s despite many of them being married and having children, living the life a woman is “supposed” to have. Furthermore, Friedan complained of young women who were being taught that “truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights” (Friedan, p. 271). Instead, they were being taught that it was a woman’s “job” to essentially be a housewife (i.e. stay home, clean the house, make food for her family, take care of the kids, etc...) (Friedan, p. 273). However, Friedan largely opposed this view and believed that it embodied the false prototypical stereotype about women. Rather, Friedan believed that a truly feminine woman would do just the exact opposite and does aim for a career, higher education, and political rights in the same way that a man would (Mancia, Class,…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays