The Long Road to the Fast Track: Career and Family

Abstract

The career and family outcomes of college graduate women suggest that the twentieth century contained five distinct cohorts. The first cohort, graduating college from 1900 to 1920, had either “family or career.” The second, graduating from 1920 to 1945, had “job then family.” The third cohort, the college graduate mothers of the baby boom, graduated from 1946 to the mid1960s and had “family then job.” Among the fourth cohort, graduating college from the late 1960s to 1980 and whose stated goal was “career then family,” 13 to 18 percent achieved both by age forty. The objective of the fifth cohort, graduating from around 1980 to 1990, has been “career and family,” and 21 to 28 percent have realized that goal by age forty. The author traces the demographic and labor force experiences of these five cohorts of college graduates and discusses why “career and family” outcomes changed over time.