An Unstoppable Force

An Unstoppable Force

Women CAN Have it All –

Not everything at Once

August 8, 2017

By: Gina Yoryet Román

On an article written on July 3, 2014, Moira Forbes touches a very sensitive topic for women. She recounts Indra Nooyi, Pepsi’s CEO’s own narrative about the indecipherable work, life balance puzzle that most women find almost inconceivable to solve.

According to Indra Nooyi, here´s why women can´t have it all.

“having it all' is just an illusion that comes with painful sacrifices and tradeoffs. The biological clock and the career clock are in total conflict with each other.

And that's the time your husband becomes a teenager too, so heneeds you. They need you too. What do you do? And as you grow even more, yourparents need you because they're aging.”

She couldn’t have been more assertive about this controversial topic. Unfortunately, women are indeed at disadvantage with the never-ending vicissitudes of life because of our nature. Sadly, women are put through a series of emotionally and physically staggering obligations throughout their life span: marriage, children, and the time and effort put into relationships. Considering all the aforementioned marriage is some sort of business between two parties who have to keep the reserve from going dry in this joint agreement, and for each party to get their according rate of return. For those women who come from traditional and very close-knit families, we have to always keep our aging parents in mind. Parents play a huge financial responsibility of a certain number of generation x women. Marriages before procreated an average of 5 to 9 children, perhaps more. Many parents didn’t visualize their financial future since their many children (in particular women)were accountable for exchanging roles as they aged;

In addition to the personal aspect, society holds high standards from women, so life, work balance cannot be attained without integrating the most fundamental factors to remain emotionally and physically resilient.

 

Albeit life’s stumbling blocks, we are able to multitask even if “I,” may be put on the back burner. That should never be allowed, as it can be very detrimental to our mental health.

According to Indra Nooyi, women cannot have it all. Nevertheless, nowadays there is clear indication that women can find the long-sought balance, if we have a strong voice to express our own needs to our families, our society, and to the people surrounding us in pursuance of finding support to help us get there.

Women in the workforce add more weight to their existence with the highly demanding and thriving workforce. With these factors in hand, we cannot help feel guilt when we are somewhat absent from our children’s daily activities. Despite all of that, women can indeed have it all, perhaps some chapters of their own books have to be put on hold momentarily, but when we bounce back, we come back stronger than before! Family has to be our number one priority, but even with this huge part of us, women are an unstoppable workforce without a doubt!

The 5 balls of life:

Coca-Cola’s ex-CEO Bryan Dyson’s speech on love, work, family and friendship

[…] Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends and spirit. And you’re keeping all of these in the air.
You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.