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Oct 09

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Work-Life Balance – Unfinished Business?

Having a successful career, or even making ends meet while raising a family causes headaches to many of us on a daily basis. Is work-life balance even possible for most people?

Level: B2 and above

 

Watch the interview and match the words to their definition.

TIP: Use the transcript to help you understand the interview better. It s a good idea to print this page and listen to the interview several times to train your ear and practice pronunciation.

 

Transcript

Katie Couric: There is still a big stigma, though, around men who take time off or take paternity leave or leave to care for their children. Do you think we’re seeing a new era of daddy-shaming?

Anne-Marie Slaughter: I do think there is a kind of ‘you’re not a real man unless you’re out there charging hard, all the time’. And what I would say about that again is that it takes courage and confidence for a man to stand up and say ‘that’s just not my definition of being a man’. Yes, there’s daddy-shaming like there’s been mommy-shaming, and I think, enough shaming.

 

Vocabulary – Matching exercise

  • era
  • shaming
  • stigma
  • take time off (work)
  • take paternity/maternity leave
  • to care for your children

 

to be the lead parent in a family and spend a lot of time looking after your children

a feeling that something is not good, not right

making someone feel bad about themselves and their life

to stay at home with your children to care for them

a period of time

to stop working for some time

 

Language Patterns to know

 

it takes courage and confidence for a man to stand up –

IT TAKES COURAGE FOR SOMEONE TO DO SOMETHING

 

there‘s daddy-shaming and there‘s been mommy-shaming –  Notice the use of the present tense in the first part of the sentence, and the present perfect in the second part of the sentence. This shows that mommy shaming started earlier (before the present) and still continues.

 

ANSWERS

to care for your children = to be the lead parent in a family and spend a lot of time looking after your children

stigma = a feeling that something is not good, not right

to take paternity/maternity leave = to stay at home with your children to care for them

era = a period of time

to take time off (work) = to stop working for some time

 

 

Image courtesy of franky242 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

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