The Review 2008

The Review 2008 27 Women Opting Out of ‘Having It All’ Younger, educated American women are spending less time in the labour force than their older sisters, most likely because they are wary of the idea of ‘having it all’ – i.e., both a high-powered career and motherhood. The findings from the Faculty of Business provide evidence of a generational shift in women’s attitudes towards motherhood and work, which have been gaining increasing media attention in the US. “The women of Generation X [born 1968-1979] are not only having more children than women from the baby boom generation but are also supplying fewer hours to the labour market,” Dr James Vere repor ted in Demography in November 2007. The cumulative fer tility of women born in 1974 and 1975, for instance, was four per cent higher than that for women born 10 years earlier. And for college- educated women it was 30 per cent higher. Younger college-educated women were also spending less time in the labour force – up to 7.3 per cent less than their older counterpar ts. This could not be accounted for by the numbers of women pursuing higher education, nor by a decline in jobs for women (women’s wages had increased in real terms, indicating strong demand). Dr Vere instead thinks the reason behind these shifts is choice. “When the baby boomers were in their 20s and 30s, the feeling was that women entering the labour force could do anything and have high-powered careers in addition to a complete family life. But in practice this didn’t work out, and the Generation Xers saw first hand that most people can’t have both. You have to choose what your priorities are going to be. I wouldn’t say their goals are different, but they’re definitely more aware of the costs of staying in the labour force.” He cautioned that a sustained decline in female labour force par ticipation could be a significant drag on economic growth, and current projections of population growth may need to be revised. “For other societies like Hong Kong, what this shows is that there are significant differences in attitudes towards work and family across generations,” he said. Research • The Review 2008 Dr Lynne DiStefano Dr Lynne DiStefano was appointed one of fourWorld HeritageAdvisors in 2008 to evaluate applications for UNESCO’sWorld Heritage List. The Canadian academic helped to found HKU’s Architectural Conservation Programme in 2000, where she is Academic Advisor and lecturer. “Being based at the University certainly has a bearing on my work. Whenever I engage in outside practice, I make it clear that I am doing the work for a variety of reasons – classroom application, contribution to local ‘Best Practice’ and my own professional development. I’m very aware that what I do reflects back on the University and, of course, myself.” 26