Yet another study debunks the opt-out revolution.
Contrary to the tired “opt-out revolution� bullshit, a recent study found that women aren’t choosing to leave their careers to be a mother and wife, but have actually evolved beyond an outdated career model to maintain their professional lives in their own way:
Study authors, Mary Shapiro, Cynthia Ingols, Ed.D, and Stacy Blake-Beard, Ph.D, found the high FWA [flexible work arrangements] usage supported their hypotheses that women aren’t ‘opting out,’ but are managing their careers differently. By doing so, women are rejecting an outdated career model that was created for and by the white male managers who were building corporations after World War II. That historical career model, demanding that work be primary in an individual’s life, was founded on the stay-at-home mother and stable organizations and markets. As that foundation has eroded, a new model has emerged where individuals act as ‘career self-agents,’ and negotiate their own terms of employment. Women, as they negotiate FWAs (to essentially determine when, where and how much they will work), are leading that shift in the career paradigm.
Career self-agents. I like the sound of that.
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"women are rejecting an outdated career model that was created for and by the white male managers who were building corporations after World War II."
I completely agree with this. I'm a white male with an MIT education, and I'm having trouble finding an acceptable grad school arrangement. I've found that my frustrations are very similar to those cited by women in science.
The traditional model absolutely does demand that work be primary in an individual's life, to the point of psychopathic disregard for all around them. The gender issue is that women are incapable of disregarding a child, at least while it is inside of them. On the other hand, it has been possible, and even worse, acceptable for men to show this disregard.
I am proud to work for an organization that has a number of these 'career self-agents.' A few of them are mothers, and are able to work non-standard days and hours so that they can care for their children. However, I include myself in the category as I work 3 days a week in order to take more night classes. There is also a male grad student who works different days and hours here every school quarter, so keep hope alive, ed!
I do have to wonder, though, if it's because I work in a progressive organization, in a liberal city, in a somewhat academic field (health care research). I worry one day about leaving the organization, and also for anyone else not lucky enough to work for such an organization, which to me seems to be the great majority of society.