Maria Shriver Tells Women to Stop Putting “Having It All” on a Pedestal

In an interview with Elle Magazine Maria Shriver shared some blunt, but common-sense advice for women.  The mom of four urges women to stop putting ‘having it all’ on a pedestal.

“Telling women that some women ‘have it all’ only makes others feel less-than. I think we all have different struggles and issues. I Tweeted this quote not too long ago that says to ‘Be kind, because everyone you know is engaged in a hard battle.’ I think that everybody is, in some way, engaged in hard battle, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, trying to keep up, trying to figure it out,” she tells the mag.

The award-winning journalist offers a different approach to consider, and says to think about aiming to “have it all” over a lifetime. “My mother once said to me, ‘There’s a time to mother, a time to be single, a time to work, a time to volunteer, a time to pray, a time to be active, a time to be, a time to do, a time to talk to yourself, and a time to be quiet.”

Shriver’s mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who started the Special Olympics in 1962 that today reaches over 4 million athletes, gave her daughter another piece of advice that’s stuck with Shriver over the course of her life. “This is a man’s world. Don’t complain about it. Get out and compete.”