ABSTRACT
The change in demography and in cultural norms and values, as indicated above, have brought about a situation where many highly qualified women seek to combine work and family life, rather than give up one for the other. Just as highly qualified women show a range of levels and types of aspiration in relation to their careers, so they show a range of attitudes and behavioural patterns in relation to family life - from remaining single without the intention of marrying, marrying and not having children, to the other extreme of marrying and following a traditional homemaker role with no intention of ever working. The idea that women are 'naturally' maternal and domestically minded while men are 'naturally' ambitious and competitive in the world of work is too simple a view to be tenable in today's society. Graduate women, like graduate men, have various attitudes towards careers - in general, and specifically in relation to themselves; and they have different orientations to family life. The aim of this chapter is to describe in some detail the family patterns found among highly qualified women, and to seek out current relationships between family patterns and career orientations.
