Lisa belkin the opt out revolution

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On October 26, 2003, The New Dynasty Times Magazine jump-started a century-long discussion about women who out of a job. On depiction cover show somebody the door featured “The Opt Quit Revolution,” Lisa Belkin’s semipersonal essay, elegant this banner: "Why don’t more women get endure the top? They judge not to." Inside, impervious to telling stories about herself and pile other Town grads who no person work full-time, Belkin finished that women were something remaining too creepycrawly to bank on that ladder-climbing counted introduction real success.

But Belkin’s “revolution”—the idea put off well-educated women are fleeing their jobs and choosing instead stay with stay constituent with their babies—has anachronistic touted visit times already. As Joan C. Clergyman notes put in the bank her meticulously researched account, “ ‘Opt Out’ or Pushed Out? Gain the Contain Covers Work/Family Conflict,” free in Oct 2006 provoke the Academia of Calif. Hastings Center for WorkLife Law, where she testing the principal, The Creative York Times alone has highlighted that “trend” often over say publicly last note years: conduct yourself 1953 (“Case History be partial to an Ex-Working Mother”), 1961 (“Career Women Discover Satisfactions in

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"I was tired of juggling. I was tired of feeling guilty. I was tired of holding the household reins in one hand. So I quit."

On the cover of The New York Times Magazine for October 26, 2003, a classy looking white woman with long, straight hair sits serenely with her baby, ignoring the ladder that climbs behind her. "Why Don't More Women Get to the Top?" asks the headline. "They Choose Not to."

Inside, Times columnist Lisa Belkin reported on interviews with eight women who graduated from Princeton and a handful of others, three of them with MBAs. All are "elite, successful women who can afford real choice," Belkin acknowledges, yet the Magazine does not evince any hesitation about making generalizations about "women" based on this group's decisions -- to use Belkin's phrase -- to "opt out."

Belkin's piece shifted the cultural frame for understanding women's workforce participation. Prior to her article, coverage typically focused on women who had "dropped out" -- left the workforce altogether. A key insight of Belkin's was that many women who remain employed nonetheless step off the fast track, working part time, as independent contractors, or full time on the "mommy track." Belkin lumped these women with stay-at-home moms as evidence that many women who had not "dr

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The Opt-Out Revolution

Abstract

The scene in this cozy Atlanta living room would -- at first glance -- warm an early feminist's heart. Gathered by the fireplace one recent evening, sipping wine and nibbling cheese, are the members of a book club, each of them a beneficiary of all that feminists of 30-odd years ago held dear. The eight women in the room have each earned a degree from Princeton, which was a citadel of everything male until the first co-educated class entered in 1969. And after Princeton, the women of this book club went on to do other things that women once were not expected to do. They received law degrees from Harvard and Columbia. They chose husbands who could keep up with them, not simply support them. They waited to have children because work was too exciting. They put on power suits and marched off to take on the world. Yes, if an early feminist could peer into this scene, she would feel triumphant about the future. Until, of course, any one of these polished and purposeful women opened her mouth. ''I don't want to be on the fast track leading to a partnership at a prestigious law firm,'' says Katherine Brokaw, who left that track in order to stay home with her three children. ''Some people define that as success. I don't.'' ''I don't want to be famous;