Columbia International Affairs Online: Videos

CIAO DATE: 01/2014

The Balancing Act: Women, Work and Family in the United States and France

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Anne-Marie Slaughter

October 2013

Columbia University World Leaders Forum

Abstract

This World Leaders Forum program titled, The Balancing Act: Women, Work and Family in the United States and France, will feature a conversation between Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Minister for Women's Rights and Government Spokesperson of France, and Anne-Marie Slaughter, President of the New America Foundation. The discussion will be moderated by Alondra Nelson, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and will be followed by a question and answer session with the audience. In her essay "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," published in The Atlantic in 2012, Anne-Marie Slaughter fueled a national debate on how the difficulties of finding a work-family balance have limited women in the top echelons of business and government. The French Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem defends the belief that national policies can and should be used to support women's personal and professional goals and to implement a "real equality between women and men." These two public figures and high-profile career women will discuss gender equality in the U.S. and in France. They will also discuss strategies to ensure that the next generation of women and men can have enough for all.