Many of the respondents who at the time of the survey had a pre- school child or did not have a child were in the younger age group. A closer look at these women is warranted as they will be the ones setting the trends in the 1990s. Figure 1 compares the responses of the general population to those of respondents in the above two stages. Next, we can look at those who actually had a pre-school child at the time of the survey. These women, compared with those who had not reached this stage yet, were more likely to prefer to stay home and less likely to prefer employment.
Differences according to which stage the respondent is in are evident.
Those who had not yet had children were the most likely to prefer employment when children were pre- school aged. This finding, along with the fact that more and more young women are gaining higher education, are pursuing careers, and are realising the financial necessity of work when they have young children, makes such a scenario quite feasible. Thus it would not be a surprise to see the percentage of young mothers who hold down jobs grow during the 1990s. But we need to consider the possibility that preferences stated by these childless women might change. That is, once they have a child, they may be more likely to prefer to stay home and thus have preferences similar to those stated by the women already in this stage.