New Generational Survey Released

Today, the Downtown Women's Club is releasing it's latest survey on the generations.  The following are some of the key findings and conclusions. 

Download GenerationallySpeaking.pdf (full survey).

Introduction

In March 2007, DowntownWomensClub.com, a women’s network and career website, surveyed 650+ businesswomen across three generations about some of the issues facing women in the workplace.  We then compared the responses from the three generations – Generation Y, Generation X and Baby Boomers.

Key Findings

• Less than 2% of women in our survey are contemplating opting out permanently from the workplace.  Moreover, less than 10% even plan to opt out for a few years. All three generations are in agreement in their top three responses:
  • Women earned the right to choose
  • Most women don’t opt “out;” they opt “differently”
  • Corporations are too inflexible.
• The idea of “Mommy Wars” does not fit the reality that most working moms do not have schedules that allow them to even meet stay at home moms. 
  • Only 2% of working moms feel inadequate when compared to stay at home moms.
  • But, we are seeing an emerging trend that women without kids are disgruntled over having to pick up the slack for working parents.
• Despite recent studies that the gender gap starts in the first year of college, and increases for college graduates, many women still do not recognize this.
• The majority of all generations believe that overt discrimination has been reduced, yet subtle discrimination still persists, and it’s more evident at the higher levels.
• When asked to give advice to the other generations:
  • The Generation X and Y women’s advice centered around having the Boomers change their attitudes (i.e. stop labeling them as slackers, expecting them to fight their same battles, or resenting them for making different choices), as well as building bridges, mentoring and learning technology.
  • Interestingly, nearly 40% of the Boomers would not recommend that the younger women follow their path.  Despite their reluctance to mentor, they also gave much of the practical advice that the younger women are seeking from mentors.

Conclusions

1. When it comes to the top women’s issues, the generations are mostly in agreement.
2. The majority of all generations feel that the media-driven “trends” like opting out and mommy wars do not reflect reality.
3. The majority of women, especially in the younger generations, do not recognize that there is a gender gap.
4. There is a clear communication problem across the generations.