 Opting to Reframe: What Women Really Want—By Linda Basch, PhD, President, National Council for Research on Women; Ilene Lang, President, Catalyst; and Deborah Merrill-Sands, PhD, Dean and Co-Founder of the Center for Gender in Organizations, Simmons College School of Management Published: November, 2005 Louise Story's recent New York Times article, "Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood" (September 20), refueled debate in a world where anecdote trumps evidence, leaving the public misled and researchers baffled once again. But rather than grant these stories more power, researchers and the press must refocus the lens, re-release the facts, and guide the emphasis back to where it belongs — on the American workplace at large. The facts: Few American women can afford to opt out. In 2003, 58 percent of married-couple families were composed of two earners. Women, across the board, value financial independence and professional identity. According to an April 2003 Simmons College School of Management study, 97 percent of the over 3,000 teen girls surveyed expected to provide financially for themselves and/or their families. Young women aspire to lead — and not simply, as Story implies, at home. Another Simmons study of 570 professional women found that 55 percent of women under 34 aspired to top leadership, a higher percentage than the 45 percent of their older female colleagues. What women — and men — want is flexibility in the workplace. In today's business world, young women and men pursue nonlinear career paths, changing jobs and industries with greater ease and frequency than previous generations. Story's flawed email survey perpetuates the myth that women somehow "opt out" of professional careers. Reliable research produced over the years by our member centers — Catalyst, Legal Momentum, National Women's Law Center, Simmons, and others — debunks this "opt out" myth, proving that today's young women, like their male counterparts, are forging their own paths. With women now firmly embedded in the workforce, the "new" news seems to be that some are clamoring to get out. But domestic arrangements setting us all back 50 years are hardly "sexy," as Story's piece at one point suggests. And such a focus offers, at best, a partial story. At worst, articles emphasizing the false choice of "staying at home" vs. "pursuing a career" ignore the economic realities of most women's lives and reinforce the expectation that women themselves should bear the entire burden of childcare, alone. What women need are not stories of highly educated women married to high-earning men choosing to stay at home. Women — and the nation — need stories about flexible workplaces, adequate childcare and eldercare, living wages, equal pay, and companies that understand why retaining women workers and developing women leaders is good for the bottom line and the health of society at large and to understand how to retain them. What we researchers want, and need, is a megaphone, a way to break through the din and broadcast the reality that should be shaping the policies that can improve all our lives. Journalists, researchers, women workers: let's team up and set the record straight. | ||
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