Is Feminism dead?

Do many people really have time now for doctrinaire feminists?

A decade or two ago, it was the professional woman who enjoyed status at high-school class reunions. Now it's often the full-time mothers who dominate the alumni websites with news and photographs of their babies. Professional achievements are often the footnotes.

Many women in their late 30s have experienced pangs of regret for having put motherhood on hold, and feel betrayed by their bodies and by the feminist rhetoric that didn't warn them that by waiting they would find it more difficult to get pregnant. When Shirley Tilghman, the president of Princeton, welcomed incoming freshmen this year, she emphasized that the goal of education was for men and women to be leaders in the broadest sense, including careers in education, medicine and engineering. She later found it necessary to expand the description of leadership to include "stay-at-home parents" who can make an impact in the community.

The day-care debate has morphed into a concern for the importance of sustaining parental support for children in the adolescent years. The "home alone" experience is now considered as treacherous as the years of the "terrible twos." The pendulum of feminism, like that of fashion, describes a wide arc. We've come a long way, baby, but that means it's a long way back.