Linda Hirshman has been here, there, and everywhere on the internets of late. I've been trying to ignore her, despite the gentle pokes of my readers. But I just finished watching the finale of Rome, and I'm in the mood for a good gladiator fight. Release the lions!
On TNR On Line, Hirshman asks what would Marx think about the opt-out revolution?
I do, and I have written that women who quit are making a mistake. But, no matter what you think of moms who opt out, their decisions speak volumes about the workplaces they flee. In interviews and on their mommyblogs, the women able to opt out tell a tale about the twenty-first century workplace that is uncannily reminiscent of the most radical Marxist theory. Maybe we put Marx into the dustbin too fast....
Women tell Hirshman that they face enormous obstacles in the workplace - long hours, discrimination, lack of part time options - combined with increased pressure for intensive childrearing. Thus, they drop out. She says that Marxist would say that was all the unavoidable consequences of capitalism.
What would Marx say? Marx would say that it is totally ridiculous for anyone to wag their finger at women who drop out of the workforce. Men and women who stay in their corner offices are bourgeois capitalists. He would spit on all those employed elites whom she loves so much. Marx writes that system destroys the family. Marx would want everyone to drop out and join forces with the oppressed. If the system gets destroyed by women who opt out, so much the better. Whenever we poke holes in Hirshman's "studies," she calls herself a philosopher. Has she read Marx recently?
Today, she's over at TPM Cafe ranting about the women who want to take longer maternity leave or work part time. Instead of reforming the workplace, they should be reforming men. Men get 50% of the hugs and kisses from junior, but only put a fraction of the time into raising junior. Those family-friendly positions are female ghettos. She chastises some of my favorite daddy-bloggers for going back to work.
I left this post scratching my head. What am I supposed to yell at my husband about? She seems to think that men are irredeemable users. They take the first ticket out the house. They won't use family leave options. So, if they are such hopeless, selfish schmucks, then there's no point nagging them. Wouldn't it be better to lobby the workplace and the politicians to create jobs that are somewhat compatible with family life? It isn't the perfect option, but at least women will have a chance to keep their hands in a career until they are ready to ramp up. They will have some benefits. It's something to put on a resume.
Excellent rebuttal from MCMoran.
If you really are an “old lefty,” as you claim to be, then you must realize that we are born into a world that is not of our own making. We can change this world, yes, but not each one of us on her own, and certainly not by recourse to the rhetoric of heroic individual effort. We do not sit down and rationally calculate, while drawing up our own unique, tailor-made individual 5-year plans. We muddle through, as social actors who are already deeply embedded in thickly-descriptive socio-cultural-economic contexts. You can work at changing the content and meaning of those contexts, or you can deny the relevance of culture and society while excoriating the “choices” of women as you set yourself up as national scold.
I have accused elite women of “making a series of self-defeating decisions about education, employment, and family formation.” And I told them to stop. I told them to take school seriously, don’t quit a job until you have another job and never marry a jerk.
And how is that tactic working out for you? Are they listening, all wide-eyed and shame-faced, while signing pledges to amend the evil of their ways?
I didn’t think so.
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