She’s the Boss: As traditionally male work such as manual labor shrinks, women will fill the need for more educated workers in growth sectors such as information technology (in nations where both genders have educational opportunities, women are less likely to drop out of school). Watch as support groups and mentoring programs emerge to help these women—something that is lacking now. In the U.K., female millionaires will outnumber their male counterparts in just 20 years, and women will own nearly 60 percent of the country’s wealth.
The Age Shuffle: Moms swap MP3 playlists with their daughters. Four of the five leading ladies on Desperate Housewives are over 40 but dress and behave a decade younger. Meanwhile, twentysomethings are saving for mortgages and exploring retirement options. We are redefining “young” and “old,” and hardly any of us are “acting our age.” Expect to see life stage eclipse chronological age as the definer of where we are, and watch as we increasingly connect through shared experiences and attitudes rather than age group. Today, for example, new mothers in both their 20s and their 40s have more in common than their same-age counterparts with no children.
Taking Back Tradition: Instead of aspiring to “have it all,” many young women are now hoping to become full-time mothers. This new attitude, rather than a step back for feminism, is (somewhat ironically) liberating for women, because they no longer feel the exhausting pressure to have the perfect career, the perfect family, the perfect body and the perfect life all at once. Today’s twentysomethings feel that older women got duped into believing this was doable—and burned themselves out trying to achieve it.
Gender Is a Blank Canvas: There’s a mounting blur in our expressions of gender and sexuality. We are increasingly acknowledging that there’s a continuum of degrees of masculinity and femininity. In New York City, transgender people recently came close to gaining the right to change their sex on their birth certificates before undergoing sex-change surgery. Surveys tell us that women have become much more open to exploring bisexuality (or, at least, they’re now more comfortable reporting it). People are also experimenting with gender identity online, in their profiles and as gaming avatars. Expect both gender and sexuality to become more blurred as our definitions of masculinity and femininity continue to be challenged.
Cougars: Demi Moore and Sadie Frost are both with men 16 years their junior. From Tinseltown to your town, experienced and independent “cougars” will redefine the May-December romance, showing their male equivalents they’re not the only ones who may trend younger in relationships. For men, the attraction will lie in the emotional and financial maturity of older women.
