How to balance your work and your life

Anne-marie Slaughter’s essay ‘Why women still can’t have it all’, about the struggle to reconcile parenting and work, went viral, sparking thoughtful conversations and heated arguments. “The reactions were overwhelming. It created a platform I never expected it would,” says the foreign-policy expert. We spoke to her about ways to achieve a better work-life balance.

Why is it so important to rethink how work and family coexist?

The question is too often seen through the lens of the harried working mother. But we all have care in our lives. We care for our parents, spouses and siblings. Valuing that balance has to be something everyone sees as imperative or we won’t make meaningful change.

Both men and women are responsible for providing the combination of income and nurture that allows those who depend on

them to flourish. Women managed to claim their place as competitors and still be feminine, and men will be able to claim their role as caregivers without giving up their masculinity.

What change would help?

We should all expect to work for companies and institutions that view caregiving itself as an asset. Employees who care for children, aging relatives or any loved one are not a liability – they have experience and insights that will help them on the job. It’s not just workers who will benefit from this shift but employers, too.

Think about all the talent we squander because we can’t find flexible work for people who need more time to be with their families.

What can women – and men – do now?

There will be periods when you work very hard at a career and periods when you spend more time on other commitments. If you’re strategic about it and think about your career as a portfolio of different skills and experiences, you can find ways to keep your networks fresh and your skills sharp even as you slow down and move laterally or even backward for a while. This kind of pattern is consistent with the way that the economy is evolving.