Women must shape a fresh future, not recreate the past | Elizabeth Debold

not surprising that women are attracted to traditional roles, but we must realize that we now have choices and can make history

Sometimes I wonder if, 20 years, therefore, we as a society decides that it makes no sense to award points coveted women in the business of cutting-edge programs, law , the medicine or science. Because by then it will be clear that the vast majority of women who are eligible for these positions - women who are extremely bright and talented - are not really interested in following through their professions and to assume leadership responsibilities. Because it is clear that, having received benefits for 10 to 15 years of training, most women choose to leave, abandon their responsibilities and ensure satisfaction in the traditional roles of wife and mother. In the future, which together could shrug and say, well, just is not working to try to get women on boards or half of the elected officials in government or at the top of any profession. Because women have shown, by their choice, they prefer not to.

hope you do not come to that. All my adult life I have defended women's right to choose their own destiny. The election was the mantra of the women's movement of 1960 and 1970. We now have the freedom to choose so that is unprecedented. Never in history have women had the freedom to shape our destiny, we have now. What's my point. Our decisions are shaping the future - and that these options are replaying the past much more than they are creating a radically new and different future for us all

• Some argue that this is a matter of time, the girls are doing very well in school, surpassing their male counterparts in almost every subject. (Math is one in which children are more often than girls.) More girls than boys take the lead in high school in the academic, extracurricular activities and student government. More girls than boys go to college. However, although there was a lot of hand wringing about the alarming fact that children are left behind, few people realize that these trends are not new. Girls are overtaking boys in leadership in the school board for nearly 30 years. The harsh reality is that most young women do not navigate between undisciplined and unpredictable complexities of life with ease to bear the well-defined tasks required by the school. A recent study by Princeton University in his own body best and brightest students, found that those students who were stars in high school we move away from the direction in college. High school is where the peaks of female leadership, rather than the training ground for the future.

tend to point fingers at the inequalities that still exist as the reason for women to throw in the towel and give up the leadership of public privacy. Indeed, lack of mentors real, rooted cultural patterns where women still bear the burden of housework and child care, and inappropriate policies around parental leave and child support are important factors. But there is more to the picture -. Rather than resting in the hands of women