Louis Uchitelle writes: “Women in their prime earning years, struggling with an unfriendly economy, are retreating from the work force, either permanently or for long stretches. When we saw women starting to drop out in the early part of this decade, we thought it was the motherhood movement, women staying home to raise their kids, Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, said. We did not think it was the economy, but when we looked into it, we realized that it was.”