THE “OPT OUT REVOLUTION” AND THE CHANGING NARRATIVES OF MOTHERHOOD: SELF GOVERNING THE WORK/FAMILY CONFLICT

Abstract

"The double shift," "the glass ceiling," "the mommy track": Women's efforts to balance work and family have given rise to a host of buzz words over the last two decades. Now, it is the "Opt-Out Revolution"-the title of Lisa Belkin's New York Times Magazine article in 2003 that described the decision of upper middle class, professionally trained women to leave the work force and to stay home to care for their children. Her Sunday magazine cover story, headlined as "Q: Why Don't More Women Get to the Top?" alongside the answer: "A: They Choose Not To," tracked the decisions of eight women graduates from Princeton now living in Atlanta, and four women in San Francisco, three with MBAs, to trade in their briefcases for diaper bags. Belkin maps their decisions onto what she identifies as a larger trend amongst highly educated women to opt out of the labor market in favor of motherhood.