Commentary

You've Come A Long Way, Baby -- Or, Have You?

by Anne Mai Bertelsen , July 12, 2010

When I was growing up in the '70s, there were two brand campaigns that left an indelible imprint on me: Leo Burnett's "You've come a long way, baby" for Virginia Slims and Advertising to Women's "W-O-M-A-N" for Charles of the Ritz' Enjoli perfume.

Virginia Slims, launched a year after the Summer of Love, tapped into the nascent women's movement and targeted young Boomer women who embraced independence, liberation and feminism by skewering 19th-century cultural and legal norms that prevented women from voting, working and smoking. The tagline captured the optimism of opportunities that the modern age afforded us.

Enjoli, launched in 1978, didn't look to the past but embraced women's new-won independence. With its empowering, if cheesy, lyrics ("I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never make you forget that you're a man -- cause I'm a woman), we learned we could do it all.

I couldn't help but think of those ads as I read the latest white paper from Ad Age and JWT on attitudes towards working women. Titled the "Realities of the Working Woman," the white paper provides terrific stats -- like women hold 49.8% of 130 million jobs in the U.S.; that two-thirds of all working women are the primary breadwinners for their families; and that the average working women works 4.9 days a week, starting at 9 and ending at 4.

But it was the multi-generational insights that struck me. Perhaps, we haven't come that far, after all. Boomer working women are still struggling with the traditional values of staying home vs. having a career 40 years after learning we've come a long way.

53% of Boomer women agree with the statement, "It was so much easier back in the day when women stayed at home and men went to work"; 49% of Millennial women also agreed with the statement but only 40% of the Gen Xers did.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of all working women would stay home with their families if they could afford to.

There is a significant minority of Boomer and Millennial working women who believe that the mother should stay home with the children: 44% of Boomers and Millennials did not disagree with the statement that a mother should stay home with the children.

Boomer women are less likely to believe that their work defines them:

58% of Boomer women view work as being linked to their sense of self vs. two thirds (66%) of Gen Xers and 71% of Millennials.

63% of Boomer women said they work for personal and professional fulfillment compared to 67% of Gen Xers and 72% of Millennials.

These insights speak to another truth, though, about Boomers that marketers (myself included) sometimes forget: not all Boomers believed in or supported the vast societal changes that sweep though America in the 1960s and 1970s. Many were happy and content with the status quo.

With Bureau of Labor Statistics suggesting that Boomer women will continue working past 65 -- some for professional and personal fulfillment, others out of financial need -- marketers would do well to remember that Boomer working women are not monolithic.

While some of us were being molded by these messages from Virginia Slims and Enjoli, others were fretting about the "ring around his collar" (Wisk) or having dishwasher hands (Palmolive) or making the perfect cup of coffee for their husbands (Folgers).

baby boomers, women

5 comments about "You've Come A Long Way, Baby -- Or, Have You? ".

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Lynn Schweikart from Gen-Sights, July 12, 2010 at 11:38 a.m.
True, it's not about age, it's about life style and life stage. Some Boomer moms may have young children at home, others may be empty nesters, still others may never have married or had children. What makes boomers a valuable target for marketers is their overall numbers, their buying power, and that, for the most part, they are redefining the concept of aging.
Reply

Kay Marikos, July 12, 2010 at 12:58 p.m.

As a front end boomer, I would certainly have answered those questions very differently 20 years ago. Work did define me then, not so much now. Did you ask the boomers answers had changed over the last few years? I think they might have.

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, July 12, 2010 at 1:21 p.m.

"Studies" have estimated that the cost of raising a child is $228,000 until it reaches 18. That amount does not include higher education than high school and does not include children who have special needs (and that category seems to be growing proportionately) costs. Why do women work for a paycheck if they would prefer not to? Add in the double family costs, i.e., ex decides to have more children with another woman, add in the growing numbers of unwed mothers, add in expense growth (cell phones, computers, even basic cable TV, school activities, lack of safe public transportation), outlandish credit problems along with uneducated fiscal responsibility of both parents, aging parents needing additional care - ------- Unless you know where you have come from, you can get lost.

David Weller, July 12, 2010 at 7:29 p.m.

A recent Pew Research Center survey ("Gender Equality Universally Embraced, but Inequalities Acknowledged") runs somewhat contrary to those boomer opinions and finds

"Almost everywhere, solid majorities.. find a marriage in which both spouses share financial and household responsibilities to be more satisfying than one in which the husband provides for the family and the wife takes care of the house and children. "

It also notes research important for marketers and anyone looking toward the future instead of clinging to a fading past:

"A new “female economy” will drive $5 trillion in incremental global spending during the next several years. ..more than half of college students are women, and women control more than half of the wealth in the US."

Times, they've already changed.

Anne Mai Bertelsen from MAi Strategies, July 13, 2010 at 3:48 p.m.

David, Thanks for mentioning the Pew Research. I don't believe that the studies contradict each other. The Pew Research looked, globally, at attitudes of gender equity. The Ad Age/JWT looked at attitudes towards working women -- not about the right of working women -- but about the challenges and realities. We can believe in equity but that doesn't mean that Boomer women define themselves in their work.