The Road To Equality: The Dreams of Youth

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It is not that older women begrudge the young their hopes; rather they recognize how many choices will still be dictated not by social convention but by economic realities. The earning power of young families fell steadily during the '80s, so that two incomes are a necessity, not a luxury, and a precarious economy promises only more pain. When factories cut back, women are often the first to be laid off. As Washington battles its deficits, cutting away at food, health and child-care programs, it is poor women who will feel the hardest pinch.

These prospects are not all lost on young people: there is plenty of room for realism between their dreams and their fears. A TIME poll of 505 men and women ages 18 to 24 by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman found that 4 out of 5 believed it was difficult to juggle work and family, and that too much pressure was placed on women to bear the burdens. But among those with the education to enter the professions, the response often comes in the form of demands. "What's different between these women and my generation," says Leslie Wolfe, 46, executive director of the Center for Women Policy Studies in Washington, "is that they say, 'I don't want to work 70 hours a week, but I want to be vice president, and you have to change.' We kept our mouths shut and followed the rules. They want different rules."

And if the economy cooperates, they may just pull it off, with some help from demographics. This baby-bust generation is about one-third smaller than the baby boomers who came before, which means that employers competing for skilled workers will be drawing from a smaller pool. Today's young people hope that that fact, combined with some corporate consciousness raising about the importance of families, will give them bargaining power for longer vacations, more generous parental leaves and more flexible working conditions.

Employers who listen carefully will hear the shift of priorities. Many college students, while nervous about their economic prospects, are equally wary of the fast lane. "We have a fear of being like the generation before us, which lost itself," says Julia Parsons, 24, a second-year law student at Georgetown University Law Center. "I don't want to find myself at 35 with no family. It's a big fear." Big enough, it seems, to account for a marked shift away from 1980s-style workaholism. The TIME poll found that 51% put having a long and happy marriage and raising well-adjusted children ahead of career success (29%).

The men are often just as eager as women to escape the pressure of traditional roles. "The women's movement has been a positive force," says Scott Mabry, a 22-year-old Kenyon College graduate. "Men have a new appreciation of women as people, more than just sex objects, wives, mothers." TIME's poll found that 86% of young men were looking for a spouse who was ambitious and hardworking; an astonishing 48% expressed an interest in staying home with their children. "I don't mind being the first one to stay home," says Ernesto Fuentes, a high school student in Los Angeles' working-class Echo Park district. "The girl can succeed. It's cool with me."