Reframing the Quest to “Have it All” — The Case for Worklife Equity

How did we get here? Who’s silly idea was it to “have it all?” in the first place?

My mother’s generation didn’t “have it all” — or even half.

Married women in my mother’s and grandmother’s generation were locked in the domestic ivory tower as queens of their homefronts, but powerless in society at large. They were discouraged from holding jobs, gaining advanced degrees, deprived of bodily autonomy and virtually never granted leadership authority. Many laws treated them as the property they once were. By denying them independent income and authority, women were starved of economic power. Often even if they had money, they were unable to open bank or credit card accounts without a male signatory, and thus were unable to exercise sole legal responsibility for assets and investments that could produce wealth.

This systemic disempowerment “protected” middle class women from unsafe work conditions suffered by the poor and “enabled” them to focus on the joys of family life without granting them social or economic credit for the hard work this entailed. They partnered with the men in their lives to feather and clean the nest, bolster family and agricultural businesses, and most importantly, provide the social infrastructure of…