Researching the Debating
Question of Can Women
Have It All?
By: Tanyia Bynum
Norwalk High School
Introduction:
Since the day the constitution was signed,
men were given a natural born right that
weren't considered for women. Since then,
women have fought to gain those rights and
try to become equal to men, from getting
voting right in 1920, to now women being
CEO of their own businesses around the
world. But, men and women are still not
completely equal which causes debate about
equal pay, discrimination, politics, gender
roles in and out of the workplace, etc. But
one question that been in the center of these
debates is Can Women Have It All which
for some people is the goal of gender
equality.
Having it all is a very vague description
but to give a clarified description it means
being about to have a successful career
while also being a great family person. It's a
balance between work and personal life, that
people are debating about. In many of these
articles and the surveys taken it is going into
whether it's possible for women to have a
successful career as a leader and be great
mother at the same time.
Researching the Debating Question of Can Women Have It All?
Experts Opinion:
Can Women Have It All? This is a question
that has been debated and discussed since
Slaughter claimed Women Still Can't Have
It All. Since that article, many experts have
come out to state their opinion on the
question.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and CEO
of the New America-Foundation, wrote the
article Why Women Still Can't Have It All
in which she stated I still strongly believe
that women can have it all at the same
time. But not today not with the way
America's economy and society and current
structured. To state her claim, she talked
about some of the women she meets that
talked to her about having to lie about
leaving work at a certain hour so that they
could have dinner with their children. She
then went on to say that that We[women]
must insist on changing social policies and
bending career tracks to accommodate our
choices, too. We[women] have the power to
do it if we decide, and we[women] have
many men standing behind us. So, her
claim is that women in the future might be
able to successful have it all, but not with
the problems that we have in society. She
thinks, that women should get the support
they need to do everything they believe in.
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Sheryl Sandberg, the author of Lean In:
Women, Work and the Will to Lead wrote a
chapter in her book named What Would You
Do If You Weren't Afraid? which she talked
about women's roles have changed
completely over the years. Sandberg used a
quote by Judith Rodin in which Rodin said
My generation fought so hard to give all of
your choices. We believe in choices. But
choosing to leave the workforce was not the
choice we thought so many of you would
make. She quickly did her own research in
which she learned that a lot of women gave
up on having a working career because they
didn't feel like they could have a successful
career and a family. She believes that they
were scared in which she asked them What
Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?
which helped women confront the question
of Can Women Have It All? So, in her
eyes she thinks that women can have it all if
they just conquered their fears and stopped
allowing society to hold them back.
My generation fought so hard to give all
your choices. We believe in choices. But
choosing to leave the workforce was not
the choice we thought so many of you
would make.
Stephen Marche, author of article Home
Economics: The Link Between Work-Life
Balance and Income Equality also had an
opinion on the debate. He believes that the
question of Can Women Have It All isn't
Researching the Debating Question of Can Women Have It All?
an important question to be asked anymore.
The subtitle stated The central conflict of
domestic life right now isn't men versus
women or mothers versus fathers; it's the
family against money. Also in his article,
he talked about how men also have
problems with managing their social and
personal life which could be helped by
society and women. His argument was that
women can't have it all but men can't either,
so we should worry more about people
finances and helping people stay alive. So
no, women can't have it all, but neither can
men, which many people agree with.
While most experts claim that women can't
have it all, the question remains. Can
Women Have It All? Another way to get
insight on this question, is by surveying
women and men to get their opinions on the
question.
Methods:
To further answer my question-- Can
Women Have It All-- I created a survey that
I gave to different age groups of men and
women. The survey had 9 questions,
multiple choice and some scale range which
gave accurate results.
While conducting my survey, I wanted to
send it to different age groups to see if
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different generations had different opinions
of the main question. Also, most of the
people I asked, had already taken college
classes or already had a college degree
which meant they had a goal for the future. I
wanted to know if women had the idea of
being a leader and if men supported it. My
survey was open for a week, and I got 46
response before closing it. 23(50%) claimed
to be men and 23(50%) claim to be women.
Also, out of the 23 men, 21(91.3%) were
around 12-36 years old and 2(8.7%) were
around 35-55 years old. For women,
20(87%) were around 12-35 years old and
3(13%) were 36-55 years old.
Results:
Survey, data showed that both men and
women believe that women can in fact have
it all. When the people were given the
statement Women Still Can't Have It All,
21(47.6.7%) strongly disagreed with the
statement while only 5(11.1%) strongly
agreed, which goes against the experts.
However, 9(19.6%) had a neutral thought
about that statement. Some people claimed
that they disagree but it's only possible with
hard work and a good support team.
*Left strongly agree, right strongly
disagree*
Researching the Debating Question of Can Women Have It All?
Also, when given the statement of Women
are afraid of taking the leadership role,
because they dont want to be horrible
wifes or mothers. the results were pretty
one-sided. 19(41.3%) strongly disagreed
while another 11(23.9) just disagreed with
the statement, which is more than half. This
proves, that the claim that society pressures
women into being afraid might not be
accurate to the people that I surveyed.
Another question that was asked to men and
women was Do you believe that women
can have a successful career and family in
todays society?. 100% of women answered
yes along with men ages 36-55. However,
men 12-35, had a different response
19(90.5%) answered yes but 2(9.5%) said
no, which I thought was unusual. Most
women had the idea that is was possible but
we had men questioning that thought, which
was different then the experts opinions.
Discussion:
Even though the survey was to a small
number of people, it showed that many
people believe that women can in fact have
it all. This shows a switch in the world that
we are living in. Most of these experts
claimed that women are afraid and that men
didnt want to help because they didnt
believe it was possible. However, this
survey gave off a different view because
both men and women believe it was possible
and they always stated that they were either
in a leadership role already or planning to
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take a leadership role. Slaughter, Sandberg and this is one step to getting there. Also,
and many other people wanted to happen. just think about it, is it far for any person to
have to choose between a job and their
family? If not, then you understand the issue
References: and why so many people are debating about
Marche, Stephen. "Home it. In conclusions, after conducting this
Economics: The Link Between Work- research, Ive learned that just like women
Life Balance and Income Equality." worked hard to get the right to vote, we will
The Atlantic (2013).
one day be equal to men and every woman
Sandberg, Sheryl. "What Would You
will believe that its possible to have it all,
Do If You Weren't Afraid?"
Sandberg, Sheryl. Lean In: Women,
we just must work for it.
Work, and the Will to Lead. 2013.
645.
Slaughter, Anne-Marie. "Why
Women Still Can't Have It All." The
Atlantic (2012): 680.

Conclusion:
The results of the survey that was conducted
for this paper dont support the claim from
the experts which was that women couldnt
have it all in this society. It challenged the
views of the experts completely because
they did believe it was possible for women
to have it all, and most wished to make it
happen in the future.
Appendix A:
Conducting this survey and collecting all
this information proves that people do in
fact have different opinions on the question
of-can women have it all?- but one thing
people agree on is women should be able to
have it all. Women should feel like they
have the choice to be a leader and have a
family without being judged or put down for
it. It isnt just about women getting better
jobs but gender equality in and out of the
workforce. Its an important issue because
through history and current events prove that
women do in fact want to be equal to men

Researching the Debating Question of Can Women Have It All? 4

Researching the Debating Question of Can Women Have It All? 5
Appendix B:

Men

Women

Researching the Debating Question of Can Women Have It All? 6