Abstract

For the first time, a generation of women is growing up for whom sex discrimination has always been illegal; who have always had access to contraception; and who have entered the workforce with the knowledge that they can hold any job a man can. On the surface, feminism has achieved a revolution for women. But often the choices young women seem to make freely are painful decisions forced on them, compromises in which their whole self cannot be expressed. This is the conflict that Peggy Orenstein's unique study, based on interviews with a wide range of women from 25-40 explores.