Anne-Marie Slaughter’s ‘Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family’

Three years ago, Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote an article for The Atlantic about the difficulty of career advancement for professional women with children. “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” which has now grown into “Unfinished Business,” electrified readers. Slaughter’s criticisms of workplace policies and attitudes were not new, but her article had the force of her own belated awakening to the problem. A law professor, author and ­Princeton University dean (now president of the nonpartisan think tank New America), Slaughter had just spent two years as director of policy planning in the State Department under Hillary Clinton — a “dream job” that she initially hoped would lead to further advancement within the agency. But after two years of punishing work hours and a weekly commute between Washington and Princeton, where her husband was taking care of their two sons, Slaughter was surprised to find herself declining more State Department stints. Sometimes a job just couldn’t be squared with family responsibilities, she concluded. She returned to her full-time academic post at Princeton, which offered flexible hours more conducive to family life, and was more or less satisfied with her decision.