Telling Women's Lives

Unfinished Business Reader Response – Adam Dailey

Ann Marie Slaughter’s perspective on raising a family as a primary caregiver is hugely valuable and insightful within the larger context of our society. This is a difficult conversation to add any original thought to other than your own opinion, and while it may have been said before I had never heard the assertion that women had to leave the home by emulating men in their search for autonomy and success. It is widely accepted now within Western society that women are capable of doing men’s work, but the incredibly important act of raising a child is still essentially seen as a cop-out from a legitimate career.
A men’s movement for greater autonomy as a lead parent would be a huge step forward in terms of equality for both genders — it would help to further legitimize the act of parenting as a full-time commitment, as well as give stay at home fathers the credit they deserve without any judgment from society.

What Unfinished business is trying to do is to start a new conversation, and it is one that is inherently valuable and important for us to talk about as we begin another chapter of social development and acceptance. In that regard, I think that Slaughter’s book succeeded hugely.