Many childless single woman would be at my age already in panic. Also I have been thinking for the last 3 years, why I have been sacrificing so much time for my work. But, I have ended up to a thought that I would never change a single day out of my life. It would be lovely to get a family one day, but my life doesn't end even if that would not happen.

My coworkers should understand that I need to go to a party tonight — and this is just as legitimate as their kids' soccer game — because going to a party is the only way I might actually meet someone and start a family so I can have a soccer game to go to one day!

Work hasn’t changed. Workplaces still act like everyone has a wife at home. Everyone should be the ideal worker and not have to leave to take care of a sick kid. If one family struggles to balance it all, it’s a personal problem. All these families with the same problem? That’s a social issue.

When I didn’t have a family, I was much more of a workaholic … I still like to work, but I also want to be home with them. As you get older, you realize you need balance. If it’s not fun, what’s the point?

People who have children have the best work-avoidance excuses in the world. If you don't have kids, get some immediately. The playgrounds are full of them.

Things are changing in the world at large. If you look around, you would find a lot of women are having babies and taking care of themselves. It’s everywhere. There are women who are not actors but are single mothers, and for a lot of people I think it’s about their biological clock. Instead of waiting for manna from heaven and you know there is no manna, and you feel the need to have children, then do it.

Women must have work of their own, first because no one who has to depend on another person for his living is really grown up; and second, because the only way to be happy is to have an absorbing interest in life which is not bound up with any particular person. Children can die or grow up, husbands can leave you. No woman who allows husband and children to absorb her whole time and interest is safe from disaster.

As for being a single mom, there’s a lot to be said about being single. It’s really wonderful. I do have a hard time making time for other people because I’m lucky that I love my work and also love going home and making jam with my kids.

Being a single lady and a mother are two different things. Now I have a family and children looking up to me. There are certain things I could do when I was younger that I cannot do as a mother. When it comes to my job, when I was single I was always on movie sets but as a mother and a wife, I had to balance it; know when to stay at home with my family and when to be at work.

Who's to blame when your kid goes nuts? Is it a blessing to not have children? 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' became a hit cult book for women without offspring who were finally able to admit they didn't want to give birth. They felt complete, thank you very much, and lived in silent resentment for years at other women's pious, unwanted sympathy toward them for not having babies. With even gay couples having children these days, aren't happy heterosexual women who don't want to have kids the most ostracized of us all? To me they are beautiful feminists. If you're not sure you could love your children, please don't have them, because they might grow up and kill us.

When they were not working they had children without being able to secure a man they could really call a husband.

It is a balancing act. I think one has to set one’s own standards. Don’t compete with anyone because everyone’s situation is unique. I always say to women colleagues, I have one child and that was intentional, because that was the only way I could balance raising my child with having my career. Then again, you find people who have four or five children. You have to carve your own path. With mundane tasks, I delegate at home. For example, I’ve made sure that my helper is amazing. If I get a salary increase, hers also increases, because she’s my home manager. The third point is have a supporting husband, a supporting family. So, in a nutshell, it’s important to understand your own situation and not compete with others; instead, compete with yourself, be the best version of yourself. And you must love what you are doing. Talking about she balance academics with leadership.

We are constantly asked to choose between family and function, and fear that if we let up for even a little while our race will be lost. Women choose between time with their children — or having children — and keeping their job. Men choose between life on the road and being bypassed. Children get used to seeing one parent routinely, or maybe no parent at all.

When I wrote Lean In, some people argued that I did not spend enough time writing about the difficulties women face when they don’t have a partner. They were right. I didn’t get it. I didn’t get how hard it is to succeed at work when you are overwhelmed at home. I wrote a chapter titled “Make Your Partner a Real Partner” about the importance of couples splitting child care and housework 50/50. Now I see how insensitive and unhelpful this was to so many single moms who live with 100/0. My understanding and expectation of what a family looks like has shifted closer to reality. Since the early 1970s, the number of single mothers in the United States has nearly doubled. Today almost 30 percent of families with children are headed by a single parent — 84 percent of whom are women. I