The Impossible Dream

At one point during the spirited discussion, moderator Michel Martin asked us, "Can women have it all-and what does that mean?" Steinem's response brought down the house: "Why are men not asked about having it all? [...]men are asked about having it all, it will mean that women are doing it all. ' " Slaughter devotes a good deal of her book to the tensions most mothers, and increasingly fathers, feel as they attempt to strike a balance between work and family. When Slaughter writes about the need for flex time, she makes only a passing mention of how such policies can exacerbate tensions between those lower-level employees who are stuck in the workplace and do not have any flexibility and those who are allowed to make more generous incomes working from home or the nearest Starbucks.