Student Guest Blogger: Helen O'Reilly
Today's student guest blogger is Helen O'Reilly, a member of the Yale Law School class of 2011. Helen is 28 years old and grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens.
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When I graduate from law school in 2011, I will be 31 years old, married, and on the way to my first job as a lawyer. I will also be thinking about starting a family. The Opt Out Conference is of particular interest to me, and perhaps other older law students, whose entry into the legal profession may coincide with their entry into parenthood. Since starting as a first year student in August, I have followed with great interest the conversations within the Yale Law Women community about “family friendliness” and kinds of work environments that women can expect or demand from 21st century employers. This topic is personally very relevant, and I continue to wonder: If you have an infant child at the same time as an infant career, can both grow up as well as you may like?
On January 13, 2009, Carol Bartz was named the CEO of Yahoo!, and as I read more about her great professional achievement, I was struck also by her views on women’s attempts to “have it all” while also trying to do it all. In a More magazine article, Bartz said, "They [women] think, 'I'm going to cook a great breakfast, wash up the dishes before I leave, take the kids to school, call my college roommate on my way in to work, be a CEO all day, volunteer on the way home, do a little exercising, cook a wonderful dinner, help with homework, have sex.' . . . I don't think so." She advised that working parents should focus on doing one thing well at a time, instead of seeking the perfection of a daily balance. In a January 15th 2009 profile of Ms. Bartz, The Economist optimistically reported that “[y]ou can ‘have it all,’ as she does, but only by cutting life into compartments and then ruthlessly maintaining the boundaries.” According to the profile, when Bartz’s daughter, whom she had at 40, was a baby, she spent three days a week looking after her at home in Dallas. On Mondays she handed the baby to her nanny and flew to Silicon Valley for four days of work; then she flew home again at midnight on Thursdays. Describing this commute in More magazine, Ms. Bartz said, “It was awesome for me, and I don’t think [my daughter] is any the worse for it.”
Is this split between work and children a new way forward or an example of a sacrifice that women had to make, but should no longer? This Conference will be an opportunity to have a
conversation about this and other important questions with parenting
professionals – and students headed down that road.