White-Collar Quandary, Blue-Collar Purgatory?
Since the early 1990s, stories about career women who have “seen the light” and chucked it all for junior have sprung like mushrooms after the rain. So it’s hardly surprising that yet another one of these articles surfaced in the mainstream media – this time in The New York Times Magazine under the appellation “The Opt-Out Revolution.” In the article, journalist Lisa Belkin profiles a group of upper-middle class women who have relinquished high-flying careers for full-time motherhood, a decision she attributes to a “post-feminist revolution.” While indicative of a personal crisis many women face in the course of their lives – career versus motherhood – do articles like Belkin’s assume a privilege of choice at the expense of those mothers who must work out of economic necessity?
Belkin’s scenario conjures an idyllic portrait of ladies who lunch. It goes something like this: fathers jump into their cars for a 10-12 hour shift with lovely wives and gurgling toddlers wave goodbye. We are shown smartly furnished homes complete with family pictures on the mantle and a dog curled up by the fire. At lunch, yoga-bodied moms congregate to discuss imminent birthday parties while chasing errant youngsters around the living room.
Turkey and Europe: An Invitation To Dance?
ANKARA, Turkey -- Not since the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire -- the seat of the 400-year old Turkish Muslim caliphate -- have Europeans been so preoccupied with Turkey. As poor Muslim immigrants from the Middle East and Africa flood the gates of Europe in search of work, the prospect of Turkey's accession into the EU has provoked the EU's most heated existential crisis to date.
Turkey, the gateway between Europe and the Middle East, began its Europeanizing mission well over half a century ago when it first applied to join what was then called the European Economic Community. Until the 1990s, however, Europe was not interested. Beset by persistent accusations that the EU was running a cozy, cohesive "Christian Club," Brussels' bureaucrats softened their position -- provided that Turkey bring into force several pieces of reform legislation. A country intent on staying on the European menu, Turkey embarked on a fierce journey, to align itself with European norms. Indeed, since 1999 Turkey has made great strides towards human rights protection, greater civilian oversight of the military, and the exercise of fundamental freedoms.
