Though educated women do drop out of the work force, the opt-out percentage rate is fairly low, and there is scant evidence that they are dropping out at ever greater rates than before, despite Hirshman's claims that they are. In fact, studies by Heather Boushey and other economists suggest that opt-out rates have remained fairly steady for the past 20 or so years, if you control for the recession of 2000-2004 (which has led to a decline in the labor-force participation rate of both men and women). What is true, however, is that those educated and affluent women who drop out do so almost exclusively because they have children—and this, in part is what has fuelled the media frenzy—while less well-educated women drop out for a broader variety of reasons. Meanwhile, these women continue to drop out at higher rates than highly educated women—and appear to face a harder time getting back into the work force, though we hear very little about this issue.