Telling Women's Lives

Unfinished Business- Eric Gorzeman

Revisiting Anne Marie Slaughter’s work, which we read at the beginning of the semester is an interesting read. This time, I felt as though I was able to read her work using a lens and see a lot of the different issues she raised in an alternative perspective. I believe that the final chapter, where Slaughter is suggesting improvements and benefits to our society as a whole is the most interesting chapter because we get to read through and dissect her suggestions. The suggestion to provide subsidized and affordable child care is one of my favorites. We have already seen child care work in other countries such as Norway and Germany to a degree, and providing such care here in the United States would allow equal opportunity for parents to still pursue their careers while being able to raise a family. Another important concept that Slaughter raised, was this work-obsession “workaholism”. Americans work longer than many of their European counterparts and have less time off than many of them too. There’s this idea in America that somehow perpetrated from the American dream, that if you work hard it will pay off and you will be successful. If you want to reach the top, you need to be a workaholic in our culture, rather than a real leader. However, in other countries such as Japan, we work far fewer hours than they do on average. I believe that America needs to find a balance between work hours and time off, and I am not sure we have found that balance yet.