Linda Hirshman Says (Tertiary Educated) Stay-At-Home Moms Are Wrong

[misty]

To me education is about CHOICE. Having an education doesn't place an onus on that person to use that education in any particular way, it just provides the individual with more choices as to how they 'wish' to live their live.

I am a SAHM with a commerce degree and 98% of a law degree (have 2-3 subjects left to finish). I never intend to use either for professional purposes. I have never held a fulltime job and that has been a very conscious choice on my behalf. There is nothing wrong with mothers who choose to work or those who have to work not through choice, but rather nessecity: however I choose to be a SAHM because to me, there is nothing else I would rather do more and we don't need the extra income. Should I not seek out education for myself simply because I do not intend on using it in a professional capacity?? For me, on a personal level, education is simply a way of keeping myself informed, enjoying knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and maintaining my options in case I ever change my mind and do decide to enter the workforce.

[Rowellen]

Funnily enough, once I completed my post-graduate diploma to become a chartered accountant, I realised that I didn't want to be an accountant. I wanted to be a wife & mother. I work part-time mainly for financial reasons and partly because I do like to go to work sometimes but I would work a lot less if I could. I would much rather be a SAHM. This article is completely flawed and entirely one woman's opinion. I can't see any solid evidence in that article to say otherwise. I think she's "wrong" to generalise to such a degree. I completely agree with Marcellus - what's the point of having kids if you spend all week in an office not seeing them?

[Phteven]

I completely agree with Marcellus - what's the point of having kids if you spend all week in an office not seeing them?

To me it's about autonomy. I like to stay at home, not because I'm really maternal but more because I'm too lazy to want to rejoin the work force and because it would be pretty silly to work for someone else when I can work for my own company.

Spending all week in an office is just as valid as being a SAHM. I get that some women are really fullfilled by their career. It would be awful to be a SAHM if you would prefer to be working and too much time out can be pretty damaging to career and earnings potential.

I think that what bugs me about this article is the whole one size fits all approach - that just because her choices make the author happy she assumes that they will work for other women/families.

[Bathsheba]

Anecdotally though she is right about the trend toward tertiary educated women choosing to be SAHMs. In my circle of T.Ed friends I certainly see that it is the case. Interesting.

[Phteven]

Anecdotally though she is right about the trend toward tertiary educated women choosing to be SAHMs. In my circle of T.Ed friends I certainly see that it is the case. Interesting.

My guess is that that is partly due the luxury of choice. On the whole people tend to marry people who have similar educational levels and a similar economic standing. As PB pointed out tertairy educated women are more likely to marry men who have the earning capacity to enable them to stay at home.

ETA - *snap* PB

ETA 2 - yep, it must be a US thing to be alarmed because here in Australia we would just be alert