What Do Women Want? To Work, Thanks

Study shows more women than ever desiring workplace advancement

A majority of young women aren't using motherhood as an excuse to sideline the pursuit of a career, a study from a leading authority on work and family balance shows. And all those daddies with the Baby Bjorns strapped to their bellies? That's the picture of many more men transitioning to a struggle women have faced for years: reconciling the present-parent self with the role as a societal contributor in the workplace.

The president and co-founder of the New York-based Families and Work Institute dropped the bomb on KERA 90.1 during universal naptime Monday. On "Think" with Kris Boyd, Ellen Galinsky announced the findings of the "Times Are Changing: Gender and Generation at Work and At Home," saying millenial moms showed no less ambition than their childless counterparts.

From a news release on the report:

For the first time, young women want just as much to advance to jobs with more responsibility as young men. Moreover, being a mother does not significantly change young women’s career ambitions.

This change in attitudes reflects women’s changing roles in the workplace. The share of dual-earner family income contributed by women has risen to 44 percent and 26 percent of women now earn 10 percent or more than their husbands. At the same time, men have increased the amount of time they spend with young children and are experiencing more work-family conflict than women.

The recession has finally stir-fried expectations of men, women and parents as leaders in the working world. We're certain young moms could use more than the need to feed their families or statistics to support them as they step over decades of guilt courtesy of the militant side of the stay-at-home movement. Ladies, please take solace in Judith Warner's Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety, Amy Richards' Opting In, Having a Child Without Losing Yourself, and an iPhone app that adds six hours to your day.

Read the full report here. 

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