'Can Women Have It All?' A Longer View

My bias here is obvious enough that I barely need to disclose it. I'll just say that I hope you will read a new item up today, in our National Channel, on how this era's "having it all" debate is different from the one that raged a generation ago.

It's by Deborah Fallows, shown here, and it describes what she has learned from interactions like this one, compared with the discussions, tensions, and decisions she was part of when her own children were small.

"Our" children, of course; we're married, though I had nothing to do with this item. I do think it's very good, and I hope you will read it. She explains why there is nothing new, but also some significant things new, in today's debates.
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Also this interesting part, based on the author's working life:

One of the things I love about my academic training in linguistics is that knowing about language often pops up as something useful or revealing. Here's what took me by surprise in this case as I strolled around our neighborhood:

Moms and babysitters and nannies, who used to push strollers in pairs and chat between themselves, now push strollers alone and talk into mid-air. Cell phone conversations are prevalent in the stroller-pushing set, and they change the nature of the language and linguistic interaction that babies hear and experience. Just listen to normal "parentese" and you hear slow talk, long drawn-out vowels, repetition, high pitch, simple grammar, and lots of inflection. Many of these elements help babies learn language.