What Is the Opt-In Project?

Something is wrong.

The covers of Time, Newsweek and The New York Times have been splattered with it. Articles like “The Case for Staying Home,” “Mommy Madness,” and “The Opt Out Revolution” have discussed the phenomenon of women obtaining the highest levels of education, entering the workforce in record numbers, and then choosing to leave. And, as Lisa Belkin stated in her article that coined the term Opt Out, “Many women never get near that glass ceiling because they are stopped long before by the maternal wall.”

The statistics cited are worrisome.

“A survey of the class of 1981 at Stanford University shows that 57% of women graduates leave the workforce; a survey of three graduating classes at Harvard Business School demonstrating that only 38% of women graduates end up in full-time careers; and a broader gauged study of MBAs showing that one in three white women holding an MBA is not working full-time, compared with one in 20 for men with the same degree.” (“Off Ramps and On-Ramps, Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success,” Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce, Harvard Business Review, March 2005)

“According to the National Association for Law Placement, a trade group that provides career counseling to lawyers and law students, only about 17 percent of the partners at major law firms nationwide were women in 2005, a figure that has risen only slightly since 1995, when about 13 percent of partners were women.”  (“Why Do So Few Women Reach the Top at Big Law Firms?” Timothy O’Brien, The New York Times, March 19, 2006)

Is it that women don’t want to lead, or that the structure of private enterprise needs to be revamped?  We propose the latter.

• We propose that we can come up with solutions to the barriers that currently exist.
• We propose that all businesses will benefit when these solutions are implemented.

“Forcing professionals of either sex to opt on or off leadership tracks as they are currently structured is not the answer. Choice on these terms is not a solution. It is part of the problem.”
– Barbara Kellerman and Deborah Rhode

Our Mission

Many are always better than one.

Our belief is that in addressing a problem a collective of people will create better solutions than just one person. The more diverse the group, the more experience is brought to the table, making it more likely that innovative solutions can be found. This is why we believe it is important to keep a diverse workforce. It is also why we want to work with a vast array of people from different industries, different backgrounds, and different perspectives in tackling the barriers that keep women out of the workforce.

The Opt-In Project

The Opt-In Project is committed to identifying and raising awareness of the obstacles that still exist for women in the workforce, both the obvious and the subtle. The mission is to address and highlight viable solutions that can help overcome these impediments.

We want to fill the gap that lies between the number of women entering professions and the women that are in high-level leadership positions. We do not see a conflict with professionals seeking both fulfilling lives and rewarding careers, and we recognize that in helping all professionals find this balance, our industry will not only be able to recruit the best and the brightest, but also retain them.

We urge women and men to opt-in and help us work toward equitable solutions.

"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." – Margaret Fuller