Women Waiting II

Following up on the last post, I wonder if the pendulum for women’s role models has swung too far the other way.  It’s gone from the 1950s ideal of a women staying home to raise the kids to women now as equals in the labor force.

Of course, that’s a good thing that women now seem to have mostly the same career opportunities as men.  But where I think people get it wrong is when they confuse equal opportuity with equal outcomes.

For example, it may be the case that men pursue CEO positions more than women due to males generally being more aggressive.  So even if hiring for top CEO positions is gender-blind (and I’m not saying this is the case), you may still end up with more male CEOs than female CEOs.

But in this case, that’s not a bad thing!  It just may be that more men want these positions and so more end up with them.  As long as there is not a gender ceiling, then unequal outcomes is not evidence of unequal opportunity.

So anyways, my point is that just because women have equal opportunites doesn’t automatically mean they should take advantage of them.  If a woman wants to stay home and raise children, then that should be celebrated just as if a woman is pursuing a career (or some mix of the two).