At the Corner of Wall and Sesame by Wendy Levitt

While much of the discussion in the wake of Slaughter’s article has revolved around executive women, Minehan points out that it’s often those not in senior management roles who feel greater strain from layoffs and high unemployment rates. Yet despite the pervasive nature of work-life issues touching wide ranks of women, Minehan suggests that it’s those further down the ladder who actually suffer from the imbalance the most. The challenges touch both their students-who are already starting to feel the pressure of the job/family juggle-as well as those who participate in the college’s corporate women’s leadership programs. designed for women.) Minehan notes that the topic of “having it all” arises frequently among women of all levels. (Simmons is the only business school in the U.S. In The Boston Globe, Cathy Minehan, dean of Simmons School of Management, weighed in. The Glass Hammer surveyed some of the varied responses to the story to bring you up to speed on the issues.

The explosion of media response to this story reveals what women in every position and life situation already knew: that the “having it all” debate is far from over. The author’s premise is that “the women who have managed to be both mothers and top professionals are superhuman, rich, or self-employed.” In other words, the article suggests that the answer to the often-asked question, “Can women have it all?” is a clear “No” for most women under normal circumstances. Slaughter asks if women of her own demographic-“highly educated, well-off women who are privileged enough to have choices in the first place”-can successfully “have it all” as both parents and professionals.

In the controversial article, Princeton University professor and former high-level State Department official Anne-Marie Slaughter reignites a decades-old debate about whether women can have both a successful career and a family. The cover story of this month’s issue of The Atlantic, “ Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” went viral in the first week after its publication.

At the Corner of Wall and Sesame by Wendy Levitt