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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
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Antoinette Lattouf

FOUND: Having it all is a myth still being used to punish working mothers - What They Never Told You

United States Antoinette Lattouf Helen Gurley Brown Jacinda Ardern
American writer and magazine editor Helen Gurley Brown in her office at Cosmopolitan magazine, 1960s
‘While the phrase “having it all” became popular in the 1980s due to a book by the same name written by Helen Gurley Brown … it made almost no mention of children.’ Photograph: Santi Visalli/Getty Images

Sometimes there are small errors in headlines that can quickly be amended and all is forgiven. Sometimes there are opinion pieces that are a little simplistic and could do with a drizzle of evidence and a garnish of nuance. Other times there are spear tackles of successful women that ponder whether they “can have it all”.

This relic of a phrase is still invoked in our media from the BBC to newspaper tabloids.

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