In the discussion of whether or not women could achieve the work-life balance, the idea of women having it all have always been a controversial issue. Women are expected to be able to balance their careers and a family, simultaneously giving equal amounts of time to each and succeeding on both ends. The standard way of thinking is that a woman’s ultimate job in life is to have children and build a family. This idea is combined with the new age feministic view that women should join the work force and have a goal oriented career. These contending ideas have contributed to an ongoing debate that is affecting women to this day, women such as Susan Patton and Lisa Belkin.
Belkin and Patton argue on different sides of the issue. On one hand, Patton argues that the women of Princeton are smart enough to navigate the workforce, therefore they’ve had enough career advice and should focus on the thing no one is telling them about: finding the right man to marry. On the other hand, Belkin responds with the argument that finding a man to marry should not be a woman’s primary goal in college. According to Belkin, a woman’s goal in college is to find herself, first and foremost. Both
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In the article, Patton talks about a Women and Leadership conference on Alumni Day in which the Princeton women, according to her, seemed to “glaze over at the preliminary questions about professional accomplishments” then, “shifted in tone and interest level…” when one person asked how the author, Patton, sustained a friendship for 40 years. They “asked about the value of our friendships, about our husbands and children” she states. According to Patton, this was a sign that women aren’t getting the information they needed to hear, which was that there are other things that we need in life such as a lifelong friend and “finding the right man to