In her much-anticipated book, "Women Who Work: Rewriting The Rules For Success," released today, Ivanka Trump joins a high-profile chorus of women who agree that the most desired and discussed of modern professional ideals, work-life balance, actually doesn't exist.
"If I am negotiating a major partnership, I might work three weeks straight," Trump writes. "If I'm planning a work trip, I know not to book something the night before I leave or after I return because I want to spend time with my family. Then I have other moments, like if one of the kids is sick, that completely change the dynamic of the day (or the week!).
"It's about taking a bigger-picture approach and creating a routine that works for you and your family."
Trump wrote the book before the election; its release was delayed a month due to the "momentous changes" in her life following her father's inauguration, and, according The New York Times, she won't be promoting it "for ethics reasons."
She writes that during the heightened intensity of her father's presidential campaign she "went into survival mode" and either worked or spent time with her family to the exclusion of all else.
In her review of "Women Who Work," Jennifer Senior notes that while Trump talks frequently about the myriad demands on her time and emphasizes the importance of building a team to support you at work, it's unlikely that Trump is managing her schedule without significant personal staff to help at home as well and a level of control at the office unavailable to most professionals.
Still, Trump isn't the first to make these observations, and she isn't alone.
, CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, says that the question of balance is one she's tired of addressing at all, in part because it overlooks the realities many working women face.
"It's a question so many women don't get to ask themselves, if they are working three shifts to keep their families above water," Krawcheck writes on LinkedIn. "I'm over it because I recognize that it's a question that my daughter may not be able to ask herself when she enters the workforce: Given how quickly the business world is changing, she will likely have to navigate a less stable work environment than I have."
Like me, most of the women I know do a great job worrying that we don't measure up.Sheryl SandbergCOO, Facebook
Here are five successful women on why it's time to put aside the unsolvable equation of work-life balance:
Ivanka Trump, assistant to the President, first daughter, entrepreneur
"I have, personally, thrown balance out the window," Trump said on a panel Monday at the U.S. Institute of Peace. "I don't even strive for it anymore because I don't like to intentionally set myself up for failure."
Indra Nooyi, CEO and chair of PepsiCo
"We pretend we can have it all," Nooyi tells The Atlantic. "My husband and I have been married for 34 years. And we have two daughters. And 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.
"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."
Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and CEO of New America
Slaughter famously wrote about the conundrum of successful work-life balance in an essay for The Atlantic, "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," that became one of the most-read articles in the magazine's history. Later, she expanded her message to address the strain felt by full-time caregivers, whose work is unpaid and, as a result, often excluded from the conversation about balance.
"We are never going to get to gender equality between men and women," Slaughter tells the Washington Post, "unless we value the work of care as much as we value paid work — or when both men and women do it. That's the unfinished business."
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, author of "Lean In," co-author of "Option B"
"There's no such thing as work-life balance. There's work, and there's life, and there's no balance," Sandberg said in a 2012 interview in which she remembered pumping breast milk during conference calls when she worked at Google.
"Employed mothers and father both struggle with multiple responsibilities," Sandberg writes in "Lean In," "but mothers also have to endure the rude questions and accusatory looks that remind us that we're shortchanging both our jobs and our children. As if we need reminding.
"Like me, most of the women I know do a great job worrying that we don't measure up."
Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and co-founder of Ellevest
"I'm over the work-life balance question," Krawcheck writes.
"I'm over it because it's impossible to maintain, anyway, for more than six minutes. There was no work-life balance, on the one hand, when I was the CEO of Smith Barney; and there was no work-life balance when my daughter was out of school for months with a concussion ... instead of discussing work-life balance, our conversations around my work are: 'What difference am I making through my work? What impact am I having?'"
See also: The highest-paying jobs for women
