Christine Quinn has some empowering and thoughtful advice for women.

The Speaker of the New York City Council, who is running for Mayor of New York City, sat down with Refinery 29‘s Leila Brillson to talk politics, New York and “leaning in.”

Quinn sounded off on the expectations society holds for working women, admitting that her work-life balance is “not that good,” and pushing back against the idea that women should strive to “have it all:”

I think “having it all” is a phrase I don’t particularly like. You need to have what you want. “All” seems to me to be an imposed list, an imposed definition by society of what “all” is supposed to be. As women, we should be able to decide what we want, how we want it, and [how we] get there. That means it won’t be perfect, there will be mistakes, but that’s fine…