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Mum's the word: Why Oxford students are putting motherhood before career
By Lucy Tobin
Published: 19 July 2007
Oxford students Amy Butler, Chloe Mattison and Danielle Abbiss A group of women students at Oxford are scrutinising a photo of 100 beaming freshers, wondering who will end up being famous. As an Oxford undergraduate myself, I am part of the group and I notice that, after identifying candidates for Prime Minister, next year's Pop Idol and a university professor, the girls all discount themselves from the top of any career ladder on the grounds that their maternal ambitions are stronger than their professional aims. Oxford's undergraduates are billed as among Britain's brainiest, but we female students are prioritising marriage and children over a career.
Feminists may be shocked. But while students do not see the glass ceiling as intact, there is a strong belief that women can only soar to the career heights of men if they choose not to have children. It's a passionate concern at Oxford, where students flock to internship interviews at top banks and law firms and question the companies' male/female ratios in the boardroom. The overwhelming impression is of companies' recognition that the figures are "not as equal as they should be".
One Oxford student asked London law firms what proportion of their partners were female and was told it was less than 20 per cent. Her response was to accept that fact. There are more female than male law graduates , but she believes women with children often find themselves sidelined or opting to stay at home, and that we should acknowledge that fact.
Some female undergraduate s believe that women can't have it all, so they should not bother trying. Amy Butler, 20, a chemistry student at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, wants to work in forensic chemistry, and identifies archaeological research as a potential specialism.But she believes she will put her career aside when she is ready to settle down. Butler would refuse to take a job requiring her to spend long periods away from home because she believes it would affect her relationship with a partner, and, later, the children. "I am ambitious in that I would like to have a stable, well-paid job that I enjoy, but I don't care about advancing up the career ladder. I would willingly sacrifice job promotion for family's sake," she says.
Many students are aware of workplace initiatives such as flexible working times to help women with families. But female students believe that it remains more difficult for women to balance a family and a job because society still assumes that women will do the child-rearing.
Undergraduates anticipate a particular stage in their career when, as women, they will have to choose between a family and getting on at work – and they're planning ahead. Smruti Sriram, a PPE student who is running for President of the Oxford Union, is one of them. Her career plans include consultancy, TV journalism and not-for profit organisations but she is adamant that having a family will come first.
"When you are in a career for a few years, you reach a point when a possible career change or pay rise comes up," she says. "Then you have to choose whether you want a family or not."
Oxford's female colleges campaigned for women's rights when women were first admitted to the university, but in those very college quads and lodges women students today are confused about their choices. Some blame the women's movement for encouraging the notion that women have choice when in reality they don't. The reality, they say, is black and white – you can have children and a mediocre career or be a top CEO and sacrifice a family.
Chloe Mattison, 20, a law student at Somerville College, is passionate about what she sees as the female dilemma of children versus career. "I want a good career but I just don't know what I'm going to do if I do have children," she says.
"It would be a waste to have studied law at Oxford, and fail to exploit the fantastic career opportunities that could follow, but I want to have a family and I'm not sure that's reconcilable."
Mattison thinks she has to choose because having it all is a myth: she wants to bring up her children herself, so would not be able to work full-time. " Society thinks that having a career is a much more praiseworthy thing to do than having children and bringing up a family. But that's wrong."
All the students I interviewed say that choosing to raise a family will mean wasting the hard work of three years at Oxford. And Mattison talks about women of her parents' generation who, after working hard for a degree at a time where women did not always go to university, now feel resentful that their family-rearing is overshadowed by their husbands' careers.
But being aware of the older generation's resentment has not deterred students from their view that having a family is a priority. According to Christine Gerrard, an English tutor at Lady Margaret Hall, female students are as ambitious as ever, but the current crop recognise the need for a better work-life balance.
"Juggling children and a career is easier now than it was in the 1980s," she says. "There's a sense that men need to play a role in raising a family. I haven't had to choose between a career and kids but today pursuing a career for most women means putting off having children until their mid-thirties. While maternity leave is now more generous than it was, childcare is far too expensive and many women lose out funding it."
The writer has completed the second year of an English degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
'I want to have children'
Danielle Abbiss, 21, is an English student at Lady Margaret Hall who plans to study medicine after she graduates next year. She will be nearly 30 by the time she qualifies as a doctor, and says that has affected her decision about what kind of doctor to be. "I'm going to be studying for more than 10 years before I'm a doctor. Even then, when I think about the future, I know I will choose a family over my career," she says. "I have to take into account my age and will apply for less stressful and time-consuming jobs in the medical field. Therefore, I'd rather be a GP with a family than a world-famous surgeon without one. I don't think this choice has been forced on me – many women have children later in life, but I would rather have a family at a younger age, so I accept my career may suffer."
http://education.independent.co.uk/higher/article2780464.ece
By Lucy Tobin
Published: 19 July 2007
Oxford students Amy Butler, Chloe Mattison and Danielle Abbiss A group of women students at Oxford are scrutinising a photo of 100 beaming freshers, wondering who will end up being famous. As an Oxford undergraduate myself, I am part of the group and I notice that, after identifying candidates for Prime Minister, next year's Pop Idol and a university professor, the girls all discount themselves from the top of any career ladder on the grounds that their maternal ambitions are stronger than their professional aims. Oxford's undergraduates are billed as among Britain's brainiest, but we female students are prioritising marriage and children over a career.
Feminists may be shocked. But while students do not see the glass ceiling as intact, there is a strong belief that women can only soar to the career heights of men if they choose not to have children. It's a passionate concern at Oxford, where students flock to internship interviews at top banks and law firms and question the companies' male/female ratios in the boardroom. The overwhelming impression is of companies' recognition that the figures are "not as equal as they should be".
One Oxford student asked London law firms what proportion of their partners were female and was told it was less than 20 per cent. Her response was to accept that fact. There are more female than male law graduates , but she believes women with children often find themselves sidelined or opting to stay at home, and that we should acknowledge that fact.
Some female undergraduate s believe that women can't have it all, so they should not bother trying. Amy Butler, 20, a chemistry student at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, wants to work in forensic chemistry, and identifies archaeological research as a potential specialism.But she believes she will put her career aside when she is ready to settle down. Butler would refuse to take a job requiring her to spend long periods away from home because she believes it would affect her relationship with a partner, and, later, the children. "I am ambitious in that I would like to have a stable, well-paid job that I enjoy, but I don't care about advancing up the career ladder. I would willingly sacrifice job promotion for family's sake," she says.
Many students are aware of workplace initiatives such as flexible working times to help women with families. But female students believe that it remains more difficult for women to balance a family and a job because society still assumes that women will do the child-rearing.
Undergraduates anticipate a particular stage in their career when, as women, they will have to choose between a family and getting on at work – and they're planning ahead. Smruti Sriram, a PPE student who is running for President of the Oxford Union, is one of them. Her career plans include consultancy, TV journalism and not-for profit organisations but she is adamant that having a family will come first.
"When you are in a career for a few years, you reach a point when a possible career change or pay rise comes up," she says. "Then you have to choose whether you want a family or not."
Oxford's female colleges campaigned for women's rights when women were first admitted to the university, but in those very college quads and lodges women students today are confused about their choices. Some blame the women's movement for encouraging the notion that women have choice when in reality they don't. The reality, they say, is black and white – you can have children and a mediocre career or be a top CEO and sacrifice a family.
Chloe Mattison, 20, a law student at Somerville College, is passionate about what she sees as the female dilemma of children versus career. "I want a good career but I just don't know what I'm going to do if I do have children," she says.
"It would be a waste to have studied law at Oxford, and fail to exploit the fantastic career opportunities that could follow, but I want to have a family and I'm not sure that's reconcilable."
Mattison thinks she has to choose because having it all is a myth: she wants to bring up her children herself, so would not be able to work full-time. " Society thinks that having a career is a much more praiseworthy thing to do than having children and bringing up a family. But that's wrong."
All the students I interviewed say that choosing to raise a family will mean wasting the hard work of three years at Oxford. And Mattison talks about women of her parents' generation who, after working hard for a degree at a time where women did not always go to university, now feel resentful that their family-rearing is overshadowed by their husbands' careers.
But being aware of the older generation's resentment has not deterred students from their view that having a family is a priority. According to Christine Gerrard, an English tutor at Lady Margaret Hall, female students are as ambitious as ever, but the current crop recognise the need for a better work-life balance.
"Juggling children and a career is easier now than it was in the 1980s," she says. "There's a sense that men need to play a role in raising a family. I haven't had to choose between a career and kids but today pursuing a career for most women means putting off having children until their mid-thirties. While maternity leave is now more generous than it was, childcare is far too expensive and many women lose out funding it."
The writer has completed the second year of an English degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
'I want to have children'
Danielle Abbiss, 21, is an English student at Lady Margaret Hall who plans to study medicine after she graduates next year. She will be nearly 30 by the time she qualifies as a doctor, and says that has affected her decision about what kind of doctor to be. "I'm going to be studying for more than 10 years before I'm a doctor. Even then, when I think about the future, I know I will choose a family over my career," she says. "I have to take into account my age and will apply for less stressful and time-consuming jobs in the medical field. Therefore, I'd rather be a GP with a family than a world-famous surgeon without one. I don't think this choice has been forced on me – many women have children later in life, but I would rather have a family at a younger age, so I accept my career may suffer."
http://education.independent.co.uk/higher/article2780464.ece
