2008 Woodie Awards
Dear Smith: Think Outside of the Feminist Box
Molly Ritchie
Issue date: 9/29/05 Section: Opinion
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I can recall numerous incidences of sitting around a dining table at Smith listening to girls speaking critically of young women who decide to be stay-at-home moms. I heard so many disparaging tones in reference to women who decide to take time out from their careers to raise their children that I, myself, had developed a sense of guilt when I thought of the possibility of taking the more traditional road. It is as if staying home to raise children or even working part- time is not even an option or is, at least, one to be ashamed of.
Especially attending a prestigious women's college like Smith, we are often fed the idea that a high-powered career is the road to happiness. I can tell you, however, after my experiences in a couple of the most high-powered government and political offices in Washington, D.C., that the career-dominated life, like motherhood, does not guarantee happiness for everyone.
According to a recent New York Times piece, I am not alone in my views. In the article, "Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood," Louise Story reports the latest findings of her research on the career and motherhood paths of young women at elite colleges. According to Story's e-mail survey sent out to students at Yale, approximately 60 percent of those women plan to decrease work time or stop working entirely when they have children.
Story's interviews with professors at elite schools such as Yale, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania suggested an increasing trend of young women considering becoming part or full time stay-at-home moms. According to Yale American Studies Professor Cynthia E. Russett, "At the height of the women's movement and shortly thereafter, women were much more firm in their expectation that they could somehow combine full-time work with child rearing." Russett, who has been at Yale since 1967, also said, "The women today are, in effect, turning realistic."
One of Story's interviewees is a Yale student who intends to go on to law school. The student, Cynthia Liu, had an SAT score of 1510, 4.0 GPA, as well as a number of other impressive accomplishments. Though she plans on going to law school, Liu wants to be a stay-at-home mom by the time she is 30. Another Yale student, Emily Lechner, also wants to become a lawyer but plans to cut back on her career for children. I can almost see many of my career-focused peers and feminists shaking their heads as they read the goals of these two high-achieving young women.
Especially attending a prestigious women's college like Smith, we are often fed the idea that a high-powered career is the road to happiness. I can tell you, however, after my experiences in a couple of the most high-powered government and political offices in Washington, D.C., that the career-dominated life, like motherhood, does not guarantee happiness for everyone.
According to a recent New York Times piece, I am not alone in my views. In the article, "Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood," Louise Story reports the latest findings of her research on the career and motherhood paths of young women at elite colleges. According to Story's e-mail survey sent out to students at Yale, approximately 60 percent of those women plan to decrease work time or stop working entirely when they have children.
Story's interviews with professors at elite schools such as Yale, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania suggested an increasing trend of young women considering becoming part or full time stay-at-home moms. According to Yale American Studies Professor Cynthia E. Russett, "At the height of the women's movement and shortly thereafter, women were much more firm in their expectation that they could somehow combine full-time work with child rearing." Russett, who has been at Yale since 1967, also said, "The women today are, in effect, turning realistic."
One of Story's interviewees is a Yale student who intends to go on to law school. The student, Cynthia Liu, had an SAT score of 1510, 4.0 GPA, as well as a number of other impressive accomplishments. Though she plans on going to law school, Liu wants to be a stay-at-home mom by the time she is 30. Another Yale student, Emily Lechner, also wants to become a lawyer but plans to cut back on her career for children. I can almost see many of my career-focused peers and feminists shaking their heads as they read the goals of these two high-achieving young women.