Sheryl Sandberg: What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?

Sheryl Sandberg creates the picture on the hurdles women face in the process of balancing their careers with their families. The fact that women put in much effort at work to achieve progress in most cases, lead to them incurring problems to do the same in their families. To her, the struggles women go through can be traced back to the imbalance treatment between genders. For instance, Sheryl says, "Career progression often depends upon taking risks and advocating for oneself-traits that girls are discouraged from exhibiting." (Sheryl 646). In accordance to this quote, it is evident that gender has a long history that still holds the effects even in the today world. The idea that most societies show bias in the way they treat a boy and a girl child. A boy starts developing the feeling of superiority over a girl by having more rights in the sense that the girl acts as a subordinate to him through serving. A good example is when the girl has the duty to do all the house chores with no little help from boys (Newman 31). Due to treatment, men grows up with an ego that they cannot do house chores since they are believed to be duties for women. In this case, this is the reason why women have to suffer bringing balance between their careers and serving their homes since men offer no support in aiding with home duties and taking care of the children (Penelope and Sally 737). With this as an issue, women are in most cases left with no option but to let go their careers just to take care of children. Sheryl is right to add that the fact women face prejudice in the workplace while the society gives much credit to men. It is an issue that discourages women to put in as many efforts as men do since they feel inferior thus leaving most of them with no option but to quit their jobs and become housewives.

Slaughter: "Why Women Still Can't Have It All"

Additionally, Ann-Marie Slaughter just like Sheryl Sandberg shows the struggles women experience as top leaders as well as mothers. The idea that women reach the ladder of success is on the assumption that they possess characters like being self-employed, being super humans and being rich. However, Slaughter argues that with the little flexibility that current career models offer, women who achieve success is on the basis that they make sacrifices to balance their homes and jobs. She says, "What's more, among those who have done it to the top, a balanced life is more elusive for women than it is for men"( Anne-Marie 676) It is a fact to justify the quote because women undergo many challenges in achieving success in both their career fields as well as balancing their homes. Though most of them like Slaughter have risen to top positions in their professions, they feel that one part of their life is not well looked on thus deciding on letting go their careers. However, the issue of women dropping their jobs to become housewives highly depends on the type of job and the flexibility within the field (Anne-Marie 684). If for instance, a woman landed a job under which she still can work for fewer hours and go home to the family, then the balance can be achievable in this case. It unfortunately that such works are hard to find in the current societies, thus making a balanced life a mere dream for women. As much as women may make earnings that are enough to cater to the needs of the entire family, inclusive of a jobless husband, the imbalance is still created in the sense that a man may begin feeling insecure thus forcing the women to quit working. Though the current world advocates for women empowerment, the issue is not much addressed in the sense that the society is enlightened on the issue that men should not let women struggle to balance family and work but help them achieve success without fear unbalance.

Works Cited

Anne-Marie Slaughter. Why Women Still Cant Have It All. Atlantic Monthly (2012): 676-696. Web

Newman, Louise. "Questions about Gender: Children with Atypical Gender Development."

Disorders of Sex Development (2011): 31-39. Web

Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet. Learning to be Gendered. They Say I Say. Gerald

Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. 3rd ed. New York City: W.W. Norton &

Company Inc., 2015. 736-743. Print

Sheryl Sandberg. Lean In: What Would You Do If You Werent Afraid? They Say I Say. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. 3rd Ed. New York City: W.W. Norton &

Company Inc., 2015. 642-658. Print