not opting out

I just spoiled myself - or as another mom/student friend told me "treated myself" to going to a lecture! Yes, that's how I feel - there are so many events going on and i'm so busy with teaching/school/mothering that all of the kschool events are merely quickly deleted e-mail announcements or passing posters. But today, I went to a talk on media's perpetuating myth of women "opting out" of high-paying careers. This amazing woman is Evelyn Murphy, from Brandeis. She talked about the continual series of news articles (most prominently in the nyt) that showcase rich white ivy league women who decide to leave their careers to take care of their children. What she pointed out, though, was that even for these women, it's because they don't have job flexibility to allow them to do what they really want to do - work some and be home with their kids some. It is also such a narrow slice of hte pie - most women don't have these choices. And these kind of anecdotes overshadow stats which show that women have to work more and more. It was refreshing.

Now, since my MIT class was cancelled I can actually grade the papers that I need to return to my students this afternoon. I am also being decadent by doing it at a cafe. Wow, I'm really living it up, eh?

It should be an interesting discussion in my section today - pretty universally, all of the students hate Michael Moore.