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I’m a hard worker and always have been. I started working when I was 14; I printed out cheap flyers advertising my babysitting capabilities and threw them in every mailbox in my town. I had my own little babysitting gigs and was doing quite well for myself; at $4.25 an hour, I thought I was making the big bucks.
As I grew older, I expanded my professional resume with retail positions, internships and jobs geared towards my career interests. I came out of college and now have a full-time job (and this super fun writing gig to keep me sane on the side) and am working towards getting the things I want for myself in life.
I consider myself - and many women just like me - to be a part of something new: the New Generation of 20-Something Women. No more relying on a man to determine financial status, stability or success; we are independent and have our own individual goals. Our own plans. Our fate in our hands.
Growing up, I learned that if you want something, you need to rely on yourself to get it and not someone else. I am taking that theory into account and notice that more females these days are too. Years ago, women were expected to find a man, get married, have children and keep the household. Rather than growing up and looking for our Mrs., 20-something women today are looking for a job, life experiences, travel and, most importantly, a life for themselves.
It’s not only the man now-a-days that needs a woman to sign a pre-nup when they get married. Meaning, more women are creating their own success as individuals, before solidifying their life with a man. These women are more realistic to the facts that 50% of marriages end in divorce and, if you want to enjoy your life, you have to rely on yourself first and foremost. Are you with me ladies?
More and more women are coming out of college and getting great jobs (albeit, men are doing the same, not trying to bash you boys, just pointing out our pattern), rather than heading straight to getting a great man. If you can have both, like my lucky self, then you’ve got two great ends of the spectrum. But my point here is that women can have both. And women are starting to realize it and put their own wants and needs first. And I quite like that.
Are you one of these success-driven females? What’s your driving force behind your goals?
[Photo courtesy of LogoKey]
8 Comments
And with in vitro fertilization in vogue, there will come a time when women and kitties rule the world.
This is SO me!
I mean when I imagine my future I do imagine getting married and maybe even one day raising my own children at home (my mom stopped working when she had her kids and raised them herself rather then relying on a nanny then went back to work when the youngest of us was in middle school) but as for now I am concentrating on getting a good degree, holding an important job and bringing home the bacon!
I feel like most of the guys I meet though are kinda intimidated by my independence. Maybe this could be the next “boys point of view” question. Are college guys intimidated by driven women? I have been telling myself this is why I havent had that many serious relationships but you tell me!
I had a hard time from 2nd-12th grades. We’re talking I didn’t like homework so I simply didn’t do it. Instead of helping me my teachers made me believe I was stupid and couldn’t get anywhere. I’m noq at a much better school than most of them ever dreamed of going to themselves working on a prestigious fellowship and looking to be super-successful all so I can prove them WRONG. I hope to some day be the breadwinner when I have a family - my fiance is so good with kids and would give anything to be a stay-at-home-Dad and I encourage that.
Well, I know this flies in the face of the whole idea, but I got married straight out of school– and am STILL like this.
I mean, it helps that I married a guy who’s totally turned on by my aggressive, hard-working nature (like I’d have married any other type). It also helps that we’re both independent people who had strongly formed identities before we ever knew each other, and that we are the exact same shade of geeky, just with different tastes.
So, yeah, I think romance is just totally irrelevant to the nature of the hard-working 20-something woman. If you meet the right guy and marry him, there’s no law that says you gotta start pumping out babies and acting like a 50’s housewife. And if you haven’t met the right guy yet, you’re not required to sit around waiting on him to get your life started, hoping that someday you’ll find Mr. Chick-Lit Perfect to rescue you from all that hard work.
…Also, KB, you are right on. Kevin is artistic and creative and great with kids– my goal is to be getting paid enough when we start a family that Kevin can stay home with them for a few years and pursue his artistic career. Isn’t that how marriage– and the ambitious life– should be?
I’m going to school for poly sci now and plan to go to law school, so this article really is me. my driving force is basically that i just have crap i want to do. i would like to be married eventually, but im not really into a traditional marriage, and im really against having children… i want the focus of my life to be more on my career.
When I graduated from school a lot of girls I know got married and basically stopped their career tracks. I just find it frustrating that we all went to such great schools and just give it up when a man comes our way. This article is inspiring to know that we don’t have to. I have my goals and a job I love and I don’t want to give that up for anything.
Why is this such a new idea? This is my 54-year-old-mother quite frankly. Worked her way through college, got a job, got married, worked through her master’s degree with a 3-year-old me. She’s always been financially independent, even in college. (With three girls and a single mother- the family couldn’t afford full tuition.)
She wasn’t married until 28, and she had me at 34. And even though she’s been married for 26 years now, she still keeps her own separate bank account. She still takes master’s classes. She’s been from California to London and keeps a steady job as a public school teacher.
I don’t find this “independent 20-something woman” so new and novel. She’s been around for decades.
I totally agree with Allison. This article sounds like something out of the mid-70s when Ms. magazine was novel. This is not saying that there aren’t women these days who are hoping for a husband to support them or even feel they need one. But college-educated women are now outnumbering men and those within this group who are just looking for their MRS degree are in quite the minority. So I would extend a great amount thanks to our mothers, rather than ourselves, for paving the way to this type of opportunity. We’re just reaping their benefits.
Also, as I’m sure people have read in the news, there’s actually now a movement of women who are vying for the right to be stay-at-home moms rather than going along with the expectation that they have to have careers. I would say this would be a more interesting angle for an article…
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