A new generation of working young women appears to be as ambitious as men, when it comes to the eagerness to climb the career ladder, with 26 per cent contributing even more to family income than their husbands, according to a new U.S National Study of the Changing Workforce released this week by the Families and Work Institute.

The study concentrated on questions such as employment and roles in the family, attitudes of men and women about home life and the workplace, as well as some other work and life-related issues. While the results of many other surveys were a little confusing in these issues, this survey appears to be unusually rigorous, analyzing answers to the same questions periodically since 1977 through a random telephone survey of a nationally representative sample.

The study found that while many women earn now 10 per cent or more than their partners, the husbands at the same time experience more conflict with balance between work and family than their wives. About two-thirds out of 3,500 wage, salaried and self-employed workers, both men and women under the age of 29 (66 per cent for women and 67 per cent for men), reported that they wanted to be promoted to jobs with more responsibility. And having children does not change this desire in young women, for the first time since 1992, when they had first been asked in the national survey of the changing workforce. Nearly 70 per cent of young moms now say that they want to climb up the career ladder, compared with 66 per cent of women with no kids.

In addition, it was found that fathers of children under the age of 13 are now spending much more time with their kids, compared to dads in previous generations. Almost 50 per cent of husbands today handle childcare to the same extent or even more than their wives, which is up from 21 per cent in 1992. Women also report that their partners are gradually becoming more involved with cooking and cleaning the house. In general, men are spending 3 hours per workday with their kids compared with 3.8 hours for modern moms.

This study shows that it is very important for fathers to be more involved with their families, and so is for the mothers, said Ellen Galinsky, the president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute. She notes that fathers' time with their kids has "leapfrogged up", and also adds that prejudice against working mothers is easing. Nowadays, 67 per cent of men and 80 per cent of women come to the agreement that employed women can also be good mothers. This compares with 49 per cent of men and 71 per cent of women in 1977. Individuals whose own mothers worked when they were children themselves, were much more likely to agree strongly that employed moms can do just as good a job raising and educating their children as do stay-at-home moms.

"Our findings are striking and surprising," Ellen Galinsky said, It turned out that there are many "firsts" in the survey - the first time that younger male and female feel the same way about job career and promotion, and the first time that there is no statistically significant difference between men and women in their views of appropriate gender roles.

Tags: Women and Business

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