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The Mythology of Opting Out: "Choice Feminism" and Work-Life Balance.

Article Excerpt
Linda R. Hirshman, GET TO WORK: A MANIFESTO FOR WOMEN OF THE WORLD. New York: Viking, 2006. 101p. $19.95, ISBN 0670038121.

Pamela Stone, OPTING OUT? WHY WOMEN REALLY QUIT CAREERS AND HEAD HOME. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007. 295p. notes. bibl. index. pap., $16.95, ISBN 978-0520256576.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, OFF-RAMPS AND ON-RAMPS: KEEPING TALENTED WOMEN ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007. 299p. notes. index. $29.95, ISBN 978-1422101025.

United States feminists from Susan B. Anthony to Betty Friedan have addressed the tension women experience between paid and unpaid work responsibilities. In the last ten years, the publishing industry has taken up the topic with a vengeance: Ann Crittenden's The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued (2001), Peggy Orenstein's Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids and Life in a Half-Changed World (2001), and Naomi Wolf's Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood (2001) began the juggernaut, and titles like The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined All Women (Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels, 2004), The Truth Behind the Mommy Wars: Who Decides What Makes a Good Mother (Miriam Peskowitz, 2005), Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety (Judith Warner, 2005), and The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? (Leslie Bennetts, 2007) quickly followed. Even more recently, a mainstream article in Working Mother has cautioned female readers that "if you're tempted to take maternity leave and then quit your job, you'll want to know what's legal - and ethical - before you do," (1) while the Elle story "Die, Mommy, Die!" poses this curmudgeonly question: "Why do so many successful women blather on about their children in the workplace?" (2) Rhetorically, then, it seems that costs, mistakes, conflict, sacrifice, and craziness are the order of the day when feminists talk about women and work.

Newer book-length entries into this conversation by Linda Hirshman, Pamela Stone, and Sylvia Ann Hewlett provide readers with three perspectives on work-life balance. Hirshman aggressively argues that women should not abandon professional careers; Stone's qualitative analysis explains why they do; and Hewlett's how-to manual provides a road map for changing the system so women can have real rather than illusory choices.

Linda Hirshman, a retired lawyer and former professor of philosophy at Brandeis University, ignited the blogosphere and talk-show circuit in November 2005 with her essay in The American Prospect, "Homeward Bound," (3) arguing...

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