Does the ‘Atlantic’ Essay on ‘Having It All’ Apply to the Nonprofit World?

The cover article in the latest issue of The Atlantic has revived a decades-long debate about the difficulties women face in juggling demanding careers and their families’ needs.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former State Department official and the mother of two teenage boys, said she wrote the article because she believes that the feminist credo of “having it all” doesn’t allow for the messy realities of the work world and the unpredictable lives of families.

The situation, she says, could be eased if more employers provided parents with greater flexibility, if lawmakers had a better sense of the challenges facing parents, and if parents did a better job of sharing duties more equally.

How do you balance work and home—and how, in your experience, do nonprofit employers measure up in supporting the working mothers on their staffs?

Join the conversation and post your thoughts in the comments section below.