Opting Out

I am not a working mother. And my own mother only worked for part of my childhood. However, I am a college aged young woman who is pursuing hire education while planning to raise a family someday so there were ways in which I could relate to the Opting Out article and other things that struck me as interesting. I do hope that the titles of optional up and coming articles such as “Gen X Men Crave Work/Life Balance Too” and
"Stay at Home Moms By Default, not Design” do surface in the publishing world in the upcoming future. I really wish I had the time to read the original article because I am curious to see this manifesto that sparked such a strong reaction. Hewett touches upon some of the other great writing there is about the modern working/mother/housewife living embodiment of yesterday and today. And one thing that is so great is she mentions how humorous motherhood autobiographical can be, and I think I have mentioned this before, humor stands out. Humor makes a point that statistics and scary seriousness sometimes falls short from. Hewett and Hochschild both look into this world that is so often mentioned but rarely studied. How is the modern day woman doing it all? Has any progress been made? If not, why not? Hewett and Hochschild both share in the belief that motherhood only deepened their sense of self as feminists, it added to, it did not take away.

Hewett and Belkin do serve a somewhat limited perspective focusing on the highly educated working woman who “opted out” but did they really? This idea of being “pushed out” is one that is recurring throughout the different texts in class and it sparks my interest because I wonder if women were surveyed would they say they opted out or were pushed out… and if they say they opted out is that just something they tell themselves? Are all women pressured to choose between home and career? I believe the answer is yes. Even if the woman herself denies this, I believe that they unknowingly are constantly being challenged to stay or go and the consequences of either with surface eventually.