At age 37, John Chewning, of Falls Church, is emblematic of the changing attitudes. In his job managing litigation support for multimillion-dollar lawsuits, Chewning often finds that when 5 p.m. rolls around each day, he could easily do several extra hours of work because there's so much left to do. But he leaves the office anyway because it's time to pick up his daughter, Charlotte, who is almost 2, from day care. Each day they decide who can better handle picking up Charlotte and who needs to remain at the office. If it's his turn, Chewning said, his employer just has to accept it.
Flexibility is as much a recruiting tool as who provides the biggest paycheck.
One reason young men are viewing their family responsibilities differently is that they are of the first generations raised by working mothers, according to the survey. About 70 percent of the mothers of men now aged 20 to 29 worked for pay. Among men aged 40 to 49, about 57 percent had working mothers. Among men older than 65, only 32 percent had mothers employed for pay. His mom, who is divorced and has three children, worked days as an administrative assistant and nights at a department store to earn enough money to support the family.