Women Can’t Have It All, says Indra Nooyi in Discussion Gone Viral

New York:  In a discussion that has gone viral on the Web, PepsiCo’s India-born CEOIndra Nooyi, counted among the world’s most powerful women, has acknowledged that it is difficult to maintain a work-life balance.

“I don’t think women can have it all. I just don’t think so. We pretend we have it all. We pretend we can have it all,” 58-year-old Ms Nooyi told David Bradley, owner of the Atlantic Media Company, at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado this week.

Ms Nooyi said she has died “with guilt” several times as she tried to bring up her two daughters with her husband of 34 years. She recounted that she felt guilty for not being able to attend several activities at her daughters’ school as she could not take time off from work.

She talked about support systems that career women have to build. “…every day you have to make a decision about whether you are going to be a wife or a mother, in fact many times during the day you have to make those decisions. And you have to co-opt a lot of people to help you. We co-opted our families to help us. We plan our lives meticulously so we can be decent parents. But if you ask our daughters, I’m not sure they will say that I’ve been a good mom. I’m not sure. And I try all kinds of coping mechanisms,” she said….

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