Anne-Marie Slaughter's Why Women Can T Have It All

Throughout human history, the definition of gender has always remained a complex topic. As an attempt to set a concrete definition over time, society formed various stereotypes that were associated with each gender. However, in a majority of cases, people do not follow every single characteristic. This can result in people receiving criticism from others. Drawing from one of my personal experiences, I can recall a time where my aunt criticized my behavior by telling me to “act more ladylike”. I remember not quite understanding what she meant by that statement at the time because I always felt that I acted feminine enough despite not fitting every single stereotype. After thinking about this, I began to consider how my gender affects different aspects of my life and who I am as a person. I determined that my gender is an important piece of my identity and does have an impact on aspects of my life such as how I perceive media, but does not have as great of an impact when it comes to choices …show more content…
Some people argue that gender impacts the likelihood of whether someone chooses their career over their family while others do not think that gender plays a role. In Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article, Why Women Still Can’t Have it All, she discusses how women often end up stepping down from a higher position in their careers due to their desire to be more with their family. In one specific section of the article, Slaughter discusses the societal stereotypes that have remained in society to this present day. “Men are still socialized to believe that their primary family obligation is to be the breadwinner; women, to believe that their primary family obligation is to be the caregiver” (Slaughter). Slaughter’s main argument in her article is that a combination of gender and societal stereotypes does impact one’s choice on whether they choose to pursue a career or