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20 Somethings- Then & Now
A lot has changed for career women since the 1980s. And not just the shoulder pads.
June 20, 1988. This was the day 9TO5 first landed in readers' hands, dubbed "the magazine for your future".
My, how things have changed. Flipping through a musty copy from the archives, I found the usual glam celebrity cover girl replaced by an image of yachts in the water (greed is good), black-and-white print, and "receptionist wanted" ads calling for nonsmokers of specific ages (18+ or 23+?).
There was also an article on "becoming a top woman manager", with advice from Leonie Still's book of the same name. Her tips included to "decide whether or not you want a career; forget about the 'nice' jobs; and if careers are thwarted, find another organisation, which will allow further room to move".
It was the same year a heavily-shoulder-padded Melanie Griffith appeared in the cult film, Working Girl, about a secretary who steps into her boss's shoes, and Madonna released a remix compilation, You Can Dance.
Demographer Bernard Salt, also a commentator on the new SBS documentary series on Gen Y, Nest (starting June 28), says the '80s career women were a very different breed from those today. "They were certainly making forays into the workplace - they were completing degrees and becoming partners in law and accounting firms. There were female premiers and ministers. The women were paving their way, but they certainly had a long way to go. It was an uphill battle, but at least it was a battle."
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Salt says typically women would remain in the workforce only until they had children - and then it wasn't so acceptable for them to come back. "They might have come back in the '90s or this decade, but it would be half-hearted [like, part-time] or in another career altogether."Those who did juggle careers and families were painted somewhat negatively as "supermums" or "superwomen" and would feel guilty about their return to work - often culminating in them overindulging their children with material things. (Hello, Material Girl.)
Their predecessors don't have the same angst, according to Salt: "Twenty years later, the Gen X and Y women don't feel guilty about working. I don't think it really occurs to them that they can't achieve anything they want to. Though, there's still the battles and conflicts with the odd dinosaur male."
University of Sydney media and communications lecturer Megan Le Masurier, who has written a thesis exploring feminism themes in Cleo magazine, agrees: "The reality is that living a tolerable life in Sydney today requires two incomes and, without adequate and inexpensive child care, losing one income for a few years can make life stressful and intolerable. Women understand this."
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June 20, 1988. This was the day 9TO5 first landed in readers' hands, dubbed "the magazine for your future".
My, how things have changed. Flipping through a musty copy from the archives, I found the usual glam celebrity cover girl replaced by an image of yachts in the water (greed is good), black-and-white print, and "receptionist wanted" ads calling for nonsmokers of specific ages (18+ or 23+?).
There was also an article on "becoming a top woman manager", with advice from Leonie Still's book of the same name. Her tips included to "decide whether or not you want a career; forget about the 'nice' jobs; and if careers are thwarted, find another organisation, which will allow further room to move".
It was the same year a heavily-shoulder-padded Melanie Griffith appeared in the cult film, Working Girl, about a secretary who steps into her boss's shoes, and Madonna released a remix compilation, You Can Dance.
Demographer Bernard Salt, also a commentator on the new SBS documentary series on Gen Y, Nest (starting June 28), says the '80s career women were a very different breed from those today. "They were certainly making forays into the workplace - they were completing degrees and becoming partners in law and accounting firms. There were female premiers and ministers. The women were paving their way, but they certainly had a long way to go. It was an uphill battle, but at least it was a battle."
read on below advertisement
Salt says typically women would remain in the workforce only until they had children - and then it wasn't so acceptable for them to come back. "They might have come back in the '90s or this decade, but it would be half-hearted [like, part-time] or in another career altogether."Those who did juggle careers and families were painted somewhat negatively as "supermums" or "superwomen" and would feel guilty about their return to work - often culminating in them overindulging their children with material things. (Hello, Material Girl.)
Their predecessors don't have the same angst, according to Salt: "Twenty years later, the Gen X and Y women don't feel guilty about working. I don't think it really occurs to them that they can't achieve anything they want to. Though, there's still the battles and conflicts with the odd dinosaur male."
University of Sydney media and communications lecturer Megan Le Masurier, who has written a thesis exploring feminism themes in Cleo magazine, agrees: "The reality is that living a tolerable life in Sydney today requires two incomes and, without adequate and inexpensive child care, losing one income for a few years can make life stressful and intolerable. Women understand this."
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