Women can't do everything at the same time, we need to

The words of Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State, shine with the wisdom of both triumph and struggle: “Women can't do everything at the same time, we need to understand milestones in our lives comes in segments.” With this saying, she speaks against the heavy illusion that women must be all things at once—mothers, leaders, caretakers, warriors, and saints. Instead, she reminds us that life unfolds not as a single blaze but as a series of segments, each with its own challenges, victories, and sacred tasks.

The ancients knew this rhythm well. The Greek philosopher Hesiod described the Ages of Man, each stage bearing its own character and labor. So too, Albright teaches, are the lives of women divided by seasons. There is a time to nurture and a time to lead, a time to build and a time to fight. To expect all at once is to demand the impossible and to dishonor the natural order of growth and endurance.

Consider Albright’s own journey. She was a refugee child, then a student, then a mother raising daughters, and only later did she ascend to the highest corridors of power. Her rise was not instant, but layered, each milestone preparing her for the next. She proved that greatness does not demand simultaneous mastery of all roles, but the steady courage to embrace each segment fully, trusting that the tapestry of life is woven thread by thread.

Her wisdom also rebukes the burden society places upon women—to excel flawlessly in every realm at once. This pressure is both cruel and false, for even the strongest cannot bend time to their will. Albright’s words free women from this snare, reminding them that strength lies not in doing everything simultaneously, but in walking steadily, embracing the right battles at the right moment. Milestones are not diminished by sequence; they are strengthened by it.

Let the generations remember: life is not a race to grasp all crowns at once, but a journey of seasons, each bearing its own fruit. The wisdom of Madeleine Albright calls us to patience and perseverance, to recognize that destiny is built step by step, not all at once. For the soul that honors each segment with faithfulness shall, in the end, behold a life complete—rich not in frantic striving, but in the steady triumph of milestones well-lived.