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Lisa Belkin is perhaps the nation's foremost chronicler of highly ambitious females and coiner of the phrase "opting out" has decided to opt out of her weekly "Life's Work" column (see what I did there? I kid). Anyway, Belkin's last column discussing the work/life balance among women and after nine years of covering this topic, she comes to the conclusion that there are "no answers — just endless and penetrating questions." But she also notes that in this time of economic peril, those questions might change entirely. More »
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Now that families with two working parents are the norm, couples are beginning to bicker over who becomes the "trailing spouse." According to CNN, the "trailing spouse" is the one whose career is subordinate. For instance, if a husband has to relocate for his job and the wife agrees to it, despite her career taking a hit, she's the trailing spouse. Mary Noonan, author of a study about working couples, says that wives are more often than not the trailing spouse because, "men and women are taught to play very different roles within marriage. Women are socialized to play a homemaking role within the family, whereas men are encouraged to focus on their careers and breadwinning." But I think the socialization goes a step further. As we've discussed, women are opting out of many science careers, and few go into other extremely demanding fields like politics. Women are choosing jobs from the get-go that are more malleable. More »
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American women are few and far between at the upper levels in the "hard" sciences, otherwise known as physics and chemistry as opposed to biology and medicine. A new group of studies suggest that women — who, according to the Boston Globe constitute "20 percent of the nation's engineers, fewer than one-third of chemists, and only about a quarter of computer and math professionals" — are rarities in these fields because they are opting out of them, not because of the paucity of opportunities available. "Substantial numbers of women - highly qualified for the work - stay out of those careers because they would simply rather do something else," the Globe's Elaine McArdle writes. In countries where women have fewer economic choices, like the Philippines, Thailand and Russia, the disparity between men and women in the hard sciences is far less substantial. More »
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Back in the 70s, Valerie Grove wrote a book called Compleat Woman, about 20 women who supposedly "had it all" — more than three children, blossoming careers, stable marriages. (Grove said she chose women with that number of kids because "the real test begins once the children outnumber their parents." ) Anyway, in today's Times of London Grove answers the question posed by the subtitle of her book: "Marriage, Motherhood, Career Can She Have It All?" The answer might surprise you. More »
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