Tilghman, Slaughter ’80 discuss women and leadership

Wilson School professor Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 and University President Shirley Tilghman spoke Friday evening as part of the Alumni Association’s “Conversation on Women & Leadership.” The pair discussed a wide range of topics, from the label of feminism to the role of government in actually implementing gender-based reform.

Tilghman posed questions to Slaughter, a former dean of the Wilson School who rose to national prominence due to her controversial cover story in The Atlantic Monthly titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.”

Slaughter focused largely on mothers in the workplace, claiming that women are systematically disadvantaged if they choose to have children and be caregivers.

“The workplace … is set up for a breadwinner rather than a caregiver,” Slaughter said.

The problem facing women today is especially disheartening, Slaughter said, because this most recent generation of women entering the workforce has been told throughout childhood that they can do everything — be a mother and a successful worker — only to find that the reality is quite different.

The solution to the problem of the caregiver disadvantage is, according to Slaughter, increased workplace flexibility. She characterized today’s working environment as one centered on proximity, in which the main criterion for a steady job is the amount of time one spends working in the physical workplace rather than the results one achieves. This, however, limits caregivers who, while still competent, cannot always fulfill the hours of a long workday.

Slaughter also critiqued the current system of tenure used by many universities in the United States, saying that a mother who is on tenure track is put in the agonizing position of choosing between career security and familial fulfillment.

Slaughter shared her own experiences working in the State Department as an example of the limited personality range in which women can operate while trying to advance in the workforce. She noted that, when she had attempted to get extremely competent women promoted, she’d been told that these women had “sharp elbows” and didn’t work well with others. Slaughter called such labeling a “double standard,” claiming that men with similar personalities would instead be praised for their proactive ambition and steely competence.

“We’re stuck because we have formal equality but we don’t have substantive equality,” Slaughter said, specifically pointing out the fact that less than 5 percent of Fortune 500 company CEOs and less than 20 percent of U.S. Senators are women.

In terms of solutions, Slaughter pointed to European nations, particularly Germany, as places from which the United States could learn with regard to caregivers in the workplace. A good place to start, she said, was paid maternity leave, something that most countries in the world already have. The United States, however, still has no uniform policy for such resources.

Slaughter also said she wants a more flexible work environment in which men and women alike can choose the hours they wish to work and are judged based on their competence and results rather than the time they spend in the office.

“A results-only work environment where there’s a lot of flexibility would make the biggest change for our working culture,” Slaughter said.

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Tilghman, too, had advice for those struggling with gender bias and discrimination, urging them to be fearless and try new things despite what gender norms might seem to mandate.

To women currently balancing work and family, Tilghman advised, “train yourself to be guilt-free. Stop beating yourself up.”