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This report is the culmination of a year-long project which has involved one of the most thorough analyses of a generation’s attitudes and experience ever undertaken in the UK. It began with the publication of No Turning Back: generations and the genderquake in the autumn of 1994. Since then we have tested the hypotheses set out in that report–primarily concerning the nature and depth of generational shifts in values through in-depth qualitative and quantitative research. Twelve working papers have been published on everything from equal opportunities policy to fathering. A wide body of new research data has been gathered from MORI Socioconsult and the ESRC British Household Panel Study at Essex University, as well as many other sources, to test and deepen our understanding of the issues.

This research has overwhelmingly confirmed the depth and extent of change: the rising power of women, the convergence of values between younger men and women, and the rejection of traditional restraints. It has also confirmed that overall this generation believes that life has improved compared to their parent’s generation. But the research has also thrown up many surprises: the attachment to violence amongst younger women, the intense frustration of many working women in the C1 and C2 categories, the rejection of national identity, and the signs of a serious disconnection from society not only amongst groups like single parents, but also in different ways amongst a wider group of young people, both poor and relatively wealthy.