Anne-Marie Slaughter on the value of caregiving, co-parenting and why we need to do less

In 2009 Anne-Marie Slaughter landed what she has called her dream job—director of policy planning at the U.S. Department of State. But during that time, her two sons were experiencing a rough period of adolescence, and she found herself wanting to be home in New Jersey with them. So she left her dream job in government after just two years, and then wrote a powerful article for The Atlantic called “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” That article went on to become one of the most read articles in the history of the magazine and helped to reignite the conversation around gender equality.

Today, Anne-Marie is still one of the most prominent political scientists out there, and in 2015 she published a widely-read book based on the response to her Atlantic article, titled, “Unfinished Business: Women, men, work and family.” In addition to being President and CEO of New America, she is also the mother of two sons.

In this episode, Liz and Anne-Marie talk about the value of caregiving, the reasons why it has been so undervalued in our society, and what we can do to start changing these norms and push us towards equality.

After their conversation, hear Jacqueline Monro Tapp read her essay, “Our Caregivers Are Lovegivers,” — a selection from Motherly's first book, This Is Motherhood, now available for pre-order on Amazon and wherever books are sold. 

The Motherly Podcast is hosted by Liz Tenety and produced by Micaela Heck and Samantha Gattsek. Music by The Blue Dot Sessions. 

Thanks to our sponsor, Prudential. 

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