Six years ago, Lisa Belkin published an article in The New York Times called "The Opt-Out Revolution". In it, she argued that educated, professional women were storming out of the office and into the kitchen in growing numbers. The revival of the fantasy of the educated housewife whiling away her days in the kitchen prompted an outcry from feminists.

At least two books, "Get to Work" by Linda Hirshman and "The Feminine Mistake" by Leslie Bennetts, were written in response. It was an epic struggle between Times editors infatuated with the image of happy housewives and feminists reminding educated women that they needed jobs to change the world and protect themselves. And it was all based on smoke and mirrors.

The New Face of Housewives
New Census data demonstrates that the lives of housewives look much different than the mostly mythical "opt-out revolution". Most housewives are far more vulnerable than the women Belkin spoke to for her article. They're younger, less educated, and make less money. One-fifth haven't even completed high school. It's not that women are clamoring to be housewives. Most housewives end up there because they don't have another choice.

There's a number of reasons that we're never going to go back to the ideal of the 1950s, where college-educated women gave it all up to wipe butts and make pot roast for hard-working husbands:

Girl power! Two generations have passed since "The Feminine Mystique" was written. Middle-class women are told to expect more, to want more and to work hard to get far.

Life is expensive. Unlike in the 1950s, the American dream costs more than one person can pay for. Middle-class women can't afford to quit their jobs without scaling back considerably.

Being a housewife is boring. Men hoarded the jobs until the second wave of feminism not because they were being gallant. Feminists who demanded the right to work professional jobs weren't stupid, either. Having a job, especially a fulfilling professional career, is more interesting than housework and child-rearing. Even if it's not politically correct anymore to say so.

Men don't want housewives. Some men fantasize about having a woman running their home and doing not much more, sure. But nowadays, a lot of men prefer to marry more independent women, and would find the idea of supporting a wife intimidating.

Perhaps the tide is turning on the romanticizing of housewives? One of the most critically acclaimed shows on television, "Mad Men," chronicles the misery of a 1960s-era well-educated housewife who is dying inside from boredom. The recent movie "Revolutionary Road" covered the same ground. We don't have an opt-out revolution; what we have is a minor resurgence in remembering that being a housewife wasn't all it was cracked up to be.