Marie-Hélène Budworth

I am always shocked at the pace of the beginning of the academic year.  My absence is largely explained by an overwhelming and unexpected teaching load.  I am starting to feel as though I have things back on track.  I have returned to some of my research and will return to my Blog.  Hopefully that will be my only prolonged absence.

Tomorrow afternoon, we are running a second set of focus groups with Generation Y women who are about to enter the workforce.  Earlier this year, we ran 6 groups of 5-9 women.  This week, we will be working with another 6 groups.  I have been finding the themes that have emerged from these groups to be surprising and fascinating.  Most significantly, from my perspective, is a clear sense that career is about trade offs.  Young women have incredible clarity about the sacrifices they would have to make for a progressive career and many have already decided that they will delay career until other parts of their ‘life’ have been taken care of.  I have been reflecting on what my own perspective of these types of issues might have been 15 years ago and I believe that completely bought into the popular notion of the 1990s that women could ‘have it all.’  As a result, I believe that today I do ‘have it all’ but at a cost.  I am tired, weary, and often feel as though I am failing at everything rather than succeeding at anything.  Now there’s another study!  The career reflections of Generation X women.