The Hard Choices That Women Are Making
In Wave Six of our study conducted in Q3 2014, we explore women’s priorities as they strive to achieve their aspirations in an uncertain world. Women are evaluating their options thoroughly and are wrestling with hard choices. “Having it all” seems like an aspiration from the distant past – today it’s more about trying to make realistic trade-offs.
In Wave Six of our study conducted in Q3 2014, we explore women’s priorities as they strive to achieve their aspirations in an uncertain world. Women are evaluating their options thoroughly and are wrestling with hard choices. “Having it all” seems like an aspiration from the distant past – today it’s more about trying to make realistic trade-offs in an attempt to design a more satisfying future for themselves and their families.
Economic concerns continue to lessen (although still remain prevalent), and she remains focused on the future. But the world has become increasingly complex, and the future more uncertain. For example, across countries, nearly half of women have experienced upward socio-economic mobility in their lifetimes, compared to only about 1-in-10 who feel their standing has dropped. But they see significant challenges to future advancement. On average, middle class consumers feel their income would have to rise 75% to become upper middle class, and upper middle class consumers feel their income would have to double to become wealthy.
Her definition of success reflects hard choices, and an aspiration toward realistic, pragmatic, achievable goals in an uncertain world. Her top three associations with success are financial security, family, happiness, and these are mentioned far more often than wealth, luxury or being a senior executive. Ask if she would like more money, power or sex (and could only choose one), 8-in-10 across countries choose more money.
Adding to the uncertainty of future achievements is widespread and continued discrimination against women, particularly in the workplace. Across countries, 70-90% of women agree that “women still face discrimination,” and similar numbers agree “women are often judged unfairly when they are assertive in the workplace.” Again, the dynamics are complex, and it’s not as simple as just men being the culprits – in the US, UK and Brazil, 2/3rds agree that men and women discriminate against women in the workplace.
