http://contexts.org/crawler/2008/07/25/the-truth-behind-the-opt-out-revolution-from-congress/ Sociology Online Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:32:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 http://contexts.org/crawler/2008/07/25/the-truth-behind-the-opt-out-revolution-from-congress/#comment-116 Philip Cohen Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:22:34 +0000 http://contexts.org/crawler/?p=173#comment-116 Warner overstates the case that the Congressional case itself overstates. The opt-out phenomenon is real - plenty of women embrace the idea for themselves, as a new way of accounting for the long-standing tendency of some professional women to drop out of the workforce and raise children. But those women are not numerous enough to account for declining women's employment rates. On the other hand, the recession can't explain it either, because women's employment stalled long before the recession - in tandem with stalled integration and shifts away from egalitarian gender attitudes. We need to drop the idea that there is one explanation for the shifting trend. Despite both "opting out" and the recession, of course, the great majority of women are still employed. I posted links and comments on this in the last few days (see link). Warner overstates the case that the Congressional case itself overstates. The opt-out phenomenon is real - plenty of women embrace the idea for themselves, as a new way of accounting for the long-standing tendency of some professional women to drop out of the workforce and raise children. But those women are not numerous enough to account for declining women’s employment rates. On the other hand, the recession can’t explain it either, because women’s employment stalled long before the recession - in tandem with stalled integration and shifts away from egalitarian gender attitudes. We need to drop the idea that there is one explanation for the shifting trend. Despite both “opting out” and the recession, of course, the great majority of women are still employed. I posted links and comments on this in the last few days (see link).

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