Once again, a high profile woman has been asked the question: Can women have it all?
And once again her response will see women all over the world take a step back to consider their own working situation and whether or not it contains a fair balance between work and life. They’ll question their ambitions and assess the lifestyles of their role models.
This time the question was directed at PepsiCo chair and CEO Indra K. Nooyi at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Monday.
And her response was frank, according to Business Insider, following admissions regarding how much time she’s spent away from her daughters and the things she’s missed out on in her family life. You can’t have it all, she said. Not if you want to be CEO.
So if you can’t be CEO and ‘have it all’, can you be something else? Can you be a business owner? A graduate, a manager, a director, a CFO?
At what point up the chain of command does the ability to ‘have it all’ actually disappear? Or is it gone as soon as you walk through the door of a job you feel some sense of ambition for achieving in.
“The biological clock and the career clock are in total conflict with each other. Total, complete conflict,” said Nooyi, “When you have to have kids you have to build your career. Just as you’re rising to middle management your kids need you because they’re teenagers, they need you for the teenage years.
“And as you grow even more, your parents need you because they’re aging. So we’re screwed. We have no… we cannot have it all. Do you know what? Coping mechanisms. Train people at work. Train your family to be your extended family.”
The rhetoric regarding the mythical concept of ‘having it all’ is getting in the way of too many women’s careers. It could be deterring some women from even attempting to have any of it, let alone all of it — whatever that actually means. Every ambition in life and work requires some kind of sacrifice.
That’s not to say those who’re asked the question shouldn’t give a frank and honest response or gloss over what they really miss out on at home, but rather that we should acknowledge that nobody — man or woman — actually ‘has it all’ and if anyone attempts to claim that they do, ask them how they spent the previous weekend.
And the response of a high profile women on the ‘have it all’ debate should not deter women from at least starting the ascent to the top. It’s a long way up there. Circumstances can change. Kids can grow up. Cultures and technology can dramatically evolve. Even expectations on the need for business travel could significantly be overhauled in the coming years. Like Nooyi suggests, there are also “coping measures” we can use to make competing demands work.
If we really need to delve into how CEOs do what they do, a better question to ask would be, “What sacrifices have you made?” Women and men can answer that question.