If you are familiar with the Best Friends at the Bar project—-as in read the books or heard me speak or read my web site and blogs, you know that “Having It All—Or Not” is a major theme of my message. It is at the heart of the “balance or no balance” debate and it has gotten a lot of attention, especially since the Anne Marie Slaughter article in the July/ August edition of Atlantic Magazine. That article—the one that got 800,000 hits on-line in the first two days after it went viral on the web and propelled the issues of work-life challenges for women in the workforce into the national dialogue—is still a topic of discussion for women around the country, if not the world. Some commenters, like Professor Slaughter, opine that women professionals with home and family responsibilities cannot have it all, and some people, like me, think that they can have it all, just not all at the same time. For us, it is all in the definition of “all.” Following that logic, you can have some of it all of the time, all of it some of the time, but it is the rare woman lawyer who can have all of it all of the time. Over the course of a long career, things seem to even out, and I would have to say that I have had it all and still do. If you read my bio on my web site, you will understand that I did not have it all all of the time.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, seem to hold similar opinions. I recommend the article by David Gergen in the September 30, 2012 edition of Parade Magazine based on his recent interview with Justice O’Connor and also the recent interview of Christine Lagarde by Andre Mitchell of MSNBC at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29974370/.
Now, there is more discussion on “having it all” coming your way. If you are in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, you will not want to miss the Washington Women’s Weekly event next week. Washington Women’s Weekly Executive Leadership Series presents “What Every Woman Needs to Know: Is the New Normal Not “Having it All”? It promises to be a lively debate about what may be called the “New Normal” and how it can be reconciled with negotiating what we deserve in our careers and balancing it with our personal lives. The reception, luncheon, panel presentation and discussion will feature three distinguished panelists with three unique perspectives:
Teresa Bozzelli, President of Sapient Government Services;
Diane Zanetti, Senior Vice President at Citibank; and
Allison Abner, Emmy Award-winning Writer and Producer.
Be there on Monday, October 15, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm, at The Westin Georgetown Hotel located at 2350 M Street, NW, Washington, DC .
So, tell me what you think about this issue—-whether you go to the Washington Women’s Weekly event or not. Can women—-particularly women lawyers— have it all? What is “having it all” ? How can women get the most out of their careers and also the most out of their personal lives? (If you are having trouble with this last one, read my new book, Best Friends at the Bar: The New Balance for Today’s Woman Lawyer, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, July 2012. Or, even if you are not having trouble with the question, read it anyway! You will be happy you did.)
Don’t know about you, but I am going straight to the Washington Women’s Weekly web site at www.womensweekly-wdc.com and signing up right now. Hope to see you there!
