Guest Author - Isabelle Harman

Generation Y, Work, and Family

Ever wonder what affect the women’s movement has had on the generations following its crescendo? There is an abundance of research available to discuss the latest group of individuals known as Generation Y. Because there is so much information available, rehashing it will not happen today.

What is the purpose of labeling generations? Is there a difference between women of the fifties and the twenty-somethings of today? Is there too much pressure on women to do it all, be everything, and fulfill all of your dreams now!

Labeling generations gives women and men the impression that they must be who the “experts” have designed them to be. All of this is justified through “extensive” research of the given population. This is in contrast to the purpose of the women’s liberation movement (which began, as most people know, long before the bra burning demonstrations of the sixties and seventies), the equal rights demonstrations, and the fight for freedom of all people.

Choice, the ability to make a choice in one’s life was the central theme of all of the civil rights movements. Take out the religious laws some try to impose and it’s easy to recognize that choice is the freedom given to today’s generation. So why provide a generation with guidelines of how they should be based on research? What they choose to do in their life is a matter of choice.

A young female professional can struggle for years with her career because that is what she is told she must do to fulfill the rights given to her by the women’s movement. In reality what this young lady wants is to have children and take care of her home while her husband works.

On the flip side, a thirty-year-old professional is pressured to have children. Her “clock is ticking”; if she doesn’t hurry she’ll be too old to have a child. What if she doesn’t want children? This is a choice she should be able to make without reservation.

How much did women in the fifties work for pay? Venture to believe that it was more than most care to recognize. Working mothers is not something new. Generations X, Y and Z don’t have the upper hand when it comes to working and maintaining a home. It could be safe to say that women in the fifties may not have had the choice to work or stay home. They had to work. Is that the case today?

Today women probably have a choice, but our desire to have a grand lifestyle (at least in many Western countries) necessitates either a two-income family or one person who works outrageous hours to earn enough money to buy all of that stuff. Or worse, put it all on credit!

Pressure on today’s women can be overcome. It’s a matter of choice.