A couple of years ago, Lisa Belkin wrote a controversial Times magazine article about high powered business women who dropped out of the workforce after having kids. Well, the women of Yale read it and took notes. Today, the Times writes about young Yale students who are planning to stay at home and raise kids; unlike Belkin's mothers, they have no career aspirations.
At Yale and other top colleges, women are being groomed to take their place in an ever more diverse professional elite. It is almost taken for granted that, just as they make up half the students at these institutions, they will move into leadership roles on an equal basis with their male classmates.
There is just one problem with this scenario: many of these women say that is not what they want.
Many women at the nation's most elite colleges say they have already decided that they will put aside their careers in favor of raising children. Though some of these students are not planning to have children and some hope to have a family and work full time, many others, like Ms. Liu, say they will happily play a traditional female role, with motherhood their main commitment.
This morning, my mom called me to tell me about this article. I skimmed it and thought little of it. Women choosing to be parents? Sounds great. No big deal. Yet, apparently it is. Check out the hubbub at Crooked Timber.
UPDATE: Kieran said that I misunderstood his post. Fine. My mistake.