Redeux!   Continuing a conversation YaleWomen Connecticut began in November

Curiosity & Conversations: Finding Work/Life Balance

What is work/life balance?  Can we -- how do we – achieve it?

Are you struggling to find balance between your professional and personal lives?  Do you feel that your professional and personal lives pull you in different directions?  Would you like to talk with other Yale women about how they are figuring out “how to have it all”? 

Join Yale women alums from Yale College and the Graduate & Professional Schools, and from all walks of life in a conversation about the topic that is making headlines everywhere: what is work/life balance and how do we achieve it?

To whet your appetite for what promises to be another rich and thought provoking conversation, we offer the following “food for thought” –

Questions to think about: 

• What is your definition of balance?  
• Has your definition of balance changed over the course of your career?  If so, how has it changed and how did you address how you found balance over time, one way or the other?  
• How does finding balance “jive” with staying competitive in your line of work?   
• Can women have it all – find balance and stay at the top?  If so – how?  
• Advice for younger women?  What do we tell the next generation of women who are facing these same issues?  
• What are your core values behind the topic of work/life balance?  

Recommended viewings and readings:

We’ve posted a number of relevant pieces on the YaleWomen Connecticut Facebook page – we highly recommend the following for April’s conversation –

• “The Failure of the Phrase 'Work-Life Balance'” by Anne-Marie Slaughter, Atlantic, 12/16.15 http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/work-life-balance/419361/

• “What Women Want From Their Employers, in 5 Simple Charts” by Valentina Zarya, Fortune, 1/20/16  http://fortune.com/2016/01/20/what-women-want-charts/

• “Rethinking the Work-Life Equation” by Susan Dominus, The New York Times, 2/28/16  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/rethinking-the-work-life-equation.html?_r=0

Previously recommended for the November 2015 conversation –

• Sheryl Sandberg’s December 2010 TED talk, "Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders" http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders?language=en 
• Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article in the July/August 2012 issue of Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/)
• Ellen Blair’s review of Anne-Marie Slaughter’s recently published book, Unfinished Business, in The New York Times (9/23/15) http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/books/review/anne-marie-slaughters-unfinished-business-women-men-work-family.html?_r=0 
• Anne-Marie Slaughter’s opinion piece in The New York Times (9/18/15), “A Toxic Work World” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/opinion/sunday/a-toxic-work-world.html

What to bring?

Your curiosity and your conversation!  And a snack to share: if your last name begins with A-L, please bring a “savory”; if your last name begins with M-Z, please bring a “sweet.”  Coffee and tea will be provided.

We look forward to seeing you!