Many times I have wondered about how I might possibly juggle work and family life. Not that this is an immediate concern, mind you, given the fact that I haven’t even gone on a date in a while, but I was thinking about it recently because of an article in Sunday’s NYT magazine. Lisa Belkin, who often writes about employment issues, described what she termed the “opt-out revolution,” a wave of well-educated women who aren’t climbing the career ladder because they choose not to.
That’s all fine and dandy for these women, since they are all part of two-parent families where the husband is making a big fat salary. In my future, however, I see things turning out somewhat differently. First, no matter what line of business my perspective spouse is in, my own salary is likely to max out pretty quickly — the non-profit world is not a moneymaker. Second, there may not be a spouse at all, let alone a high-salaried one. Although I don’t like to think about it, there is a chance that I may end up making the decision to raise a child by myself. Finally, my dream spouse is much more likely to be an artist, a schoolteacher, or a legal aid lawyer than a corporate lawyer or a banker — this is a good thing.
Sometimes I wonder — I have the capacity to earn a much bigger salary as a corporate lawyer — could I ever go back? Not likely, certainly not for anything other than a short-term stint. Maybe I should reconsider dating those corporate lawyers and investment bankers . . . hmm.
Note — as pointed out my one of my cohorts, there was a Salon article that’s more in line with my thinking on this issue.
Comments
2 responses
Read the article in Salon about the NY Times article. There’s no “revolution.” These are just rich women in NYC and other cities who have the luxury to make the choice to stay home.
http://salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/10/27/belkin/index_np.html
Yeah — I read that article too. (of course, since we read all the same stuff)