Directions: Read the following passages and then answer IN COMPLETE SENTENCES the questions which follow each passage. Use only information from the passage you have just read and write your answer in the corresponding space in your answer sheet.
Modern women may be better educated, have better jobs and earn more money than their grandmothers ever dream of, but in one way the life remains the same—eight out of ten women still do the household chores.
Only 1 percent of men say they do the washing and ironing or decide what to have for dinner. The only area where average man is more likely to help out is with small repairs around the house.
The report Social Focus on Women and Men, by the Office for National Statistics, found that attitudes to women working have changed drastically over the past decade. Whereas in 1987 more than half of men and 40 per cent of women agreed with the statement, “A husband’ s job is to earn the money, a wife’ s job is to look after the home and family” , that view had halved among both sexes by 1994.
The numbers agreeing strongly with the statement, “A job is all right but what most women really want is a home and children” , had also halved from 15 per cent to 7 per cent of men feeling that way and 12 per cent to 5 per cent of women.
Women’ s increased participation in the world of work has been one of the most striking features of recent decades. Nearly half of all women aged 55 to 59 have no qualifications. But their granddaughters are outperforming their male peers across the board, and from 1989 overtook boys at A-levels.
Gender stereotypes persist at this level of education, however, with more than three-fifths of English entrants being female, while a similar proportion of maths entrants are male. A greater number of boys take physics and chemistry whereas girls predominate in social sciences and history.
The explosion in higher education means there was a 66 per cent increase in number of female undergraduates and a 50 per cent increase in the number of male undergraduates between1990-91 and 1995-96.
Women are also making breakthroughs in specific areas of employment. Women now form a slight majority among new solicitors although they make up only one-third of all solicitors. Since 1984 the number of women in work has risen by 20 per cent to 10. 5 million.
But when it comes to pay, they still lag behind their male peers. Women earn on average 80 per of what men do per hour. They are also far more likely to work part-time or with temporary contracts.
Part of the reason for this is because women still take the main role in childcare, although they are more likely to work than in the past. The number of mothers with children under five doubled between 1973 and 1996. And the number of women who return to work within nine to eleven months of the birth increased dramatically. In 1974, only 24 per cent of women returned in this period compared with 67 per cent in 1996.
The relationship between the sexes has also seen changes. Seven in ten first marriages are now preceded by cohabitation compared with only one in twenty first marriages in the mid-1960s. Since 1992 women in their early thirties have been more likely to give birth than those in their early twenties, although the fertility rate is still highest among those aged 25 to 29.