![]() We must support one another in both our homes and our workplaces by creating policies and opportunities that enable one another to embrace the multiple roles they are asked to play at varying points in their lives. Our workplace is a part of our community. Living out a vocation of motherhood is not incompatible with living out our calling to serve as a leader in the workplace. We are part of a community, a community that complements our strengths and compensates for our weaknesses, but toward where we must be open if we are to receive its support. ![]() These sorts of comments reinforce the “scramble ride” dynamic. On the other hand, however, he was marveling publicly at the near incomprehensibility of these two roles being simultaneously and successfully executed by the same woman. When Senator Mike Braun described Amy Coney Barrett as a “Legal titan who drives a minivan,” he was, on one hand, simply seeking to document Coney Barrett’s adherence to traditional values. We were created to be “present.” Being “present” allows us to manifest our gifts in different ways and in different contexts. This may mean very different things from day to day and even hour to hour. We must simply seek to be the best version of what we have been called to be. ![]() We must resist the temptation to measure ourselves against others. We must resist the temptation to measure ourselves against terms like “professional” and “domestic,” or some ideal combination of the two. We have different gifts and different callings. Allow me to offer a different perspective. This dynamic leads, understandably, to feelings of anxiety and frustration among many women, and can fuel a sense of inadequacy regarding the challenge of every truly living up to these ever changing and shifting pieces of advice. The advice feels akin to the sensation of the scrambler ride, with one opinion pushing women in one direction and the next opinion yanking them abruptly in another. Former state department leader Anne-Marie Slaughter told us “we can’t have it all.” Others have suggested that we “recline,” and still others have warned, ominously, of the dangers of leaving the workforce to stay home with children. Sheryl Sandberg encouraged us to “lean in” to professional opportunities. I experience the “scrambler squeeze” and enjoy the laughter for my children.Īs we celebrate Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, recent reports about women attempting to balance their personal and professional lives have me reflecting on the “scrambler squeeze.” During the past decade, a parade of successful women have come forward with “recipes” for women in leadership. I hop on the scrambler with my two youngest boys who persuade me to sit on the side that gets “squished.” We spin around in various directions, getting pulled this way and that way. Each year, my youngest children beg and plead with me to join them on the midway rides during Corn Palace week.
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