The "Opt Out Revolution" and the Changing Narratives of Motherhood: Self Governing the Work/Family Conflict

The self governance discourse of the opt out revolution may thus operate to deflect attention away from the multiple levels of state, market, and family that constitute the terrain of women's choices. However pointing out this obfuscating effect should not be equated with denying the fact of choice. Rather, this Article's argument is that it is precisely the degree of choice operating in these women's lives that makes the narrative so powerful, and so difficult to effectively challenge. Instead of denying the descriptive, analytic, or onnative reality of choice, an effective feminist response may be to shift its analysis to the terrain of self governance and governmentality, and begin to consider the multiple ways in which motherhood is being reconfigured on this terrain.