Some people appear to "get it," including Shirley M. Tilghman, the president of Princeton University, who said "The goal of a Princeton education is to prepare young men and women to take up positions of leadership in the 21st century. Of course, the word 'leadership' conjures up images of presidents and C.E.O.'s, but I want to stress that my idea of a leader is much broader than that," and "There is nothing inconsistent with being a leader and a stay-at-home parent. Some women (and a handful of men) whom I have known who have done this have had a powerful impact on their communities."
So do the unnamed university officials who "said that success meant different things to different people and that universities were trying to broaden students' minds, not simply prepare them for jobs."
But some people, however well-educated, are still clueless, such as Peter Salovey, the dean of Yale College, who bemoaned, "What does concern me is that so few students seem to be able to think outside the box; so few students seem to be able to imagine a life for themselves that isn't constructed along traditional gender roles."
This generation has faced overwhelming pressure, promotion, and downright propaganda against the idea that making a home and caring for a family is an important, valuable, and respectable career goal. No matter what it may look like to the older generation, even the smallest move towards home is radical thinking for today's college students. What consititutes "outside the box" depends very much on which box you are in, and what color chains you are wearing.
