Debora Spar – Quotes

Don’t take too much

Don’t take too much credit for your children – or too much blame! Debora Spar

I certainly want to

I certainly want to be ambitious for women. I’m ambitious for myself. I think women can definitely find areas in which they want to excel. Debora Spar

You have to learn to say no not just to things you don’t want to do, you have to say no to things that you want to do, things that are good to do. You have to realize that every time you say yes to one thing you’ve got to take something else off the … Read more

‘Maybe’ is what gets

‘Maybe’ is what gets us into trouble, because I think constantly women are saying I’ll try to do it, maybe I’ll do it, I’ll do it if I can, and then they’re feeling guilty when inevitably they can’t do everything. Debora Spar

I certainly wouldn’t go

I certainly wouldn’t go back and blame feminism, because all that feminism was really trying to do, which was huge, was to create a new set of expectations, a new set of opportunities for women, and they did. Debora Spar

If you look at

If you look at television shows, which of course are fictional so you don’t expect them to be real, but they’re constantly showing career women who are also successful mothers and also look gorgeous. And we fall into believing that these fictional lives are somehow accurate depictions of what our real lives should be about. … Read more

I think one thing

I think one thing that women can do is to just be more honest, with themselves and with their friends, and be more willing to say I’m really excited about this part of my life, but I’m screwing up over here, or this is a mistake I’ve made, or this is something I’ve given up … Read more

I think what we

I think what we need to do is to step back as a society and say okay, we’ve kind of turned things upside-down. We have moved away from the nuclear family, in which the man always works and the woman stays home. How are we going to rearrange things now? We’ve done the first part … Read more

If two people have

If two people have a couple of kids, somebody does have to take care of the kids. Somebody does have to cook dinner; somebody does have to do garbage duty. We need to take some time and give some thought, without being angry, to just thinking about what these new structures are going to look … Read more

If we don’t find

If we don’t find a way to keep women in the workforce, keep them productive, keep them happy, we are literally just throwing our investment down the drain, and we can’t afford to do that. Debora Spar