Abstract:

The number of women with a paid job in the Netherlands is growing rapidly. Of course, having a job has implications on the amount of money, time and contacts one has. But the list of topics that are affected is much larger.To study what implications these changes in the lives of women may have for both marketeers, government and market researchers NIPO has done a number of studies starting in 1988. The findings of these studies are reported here. The first study concerns the survey of Women '88 conducted by NIPO in 1988. This is a study on the process of individualisation of women in the Netherlands. Five categories of women were distinguished segmented to the attitude towards individualisation and with respect to the individualised behaviour. The five types of women described in the study are: the pioneer, the supporter, the in between, the counterpart and the traditionalist. These five segments differ to a number of characteristics: education, marital status, employment, activities in the household, opinions about role patterns, independence and opportunities for women in society, leisure activities and consumer behaviour. It can be expected that women will combine jobs with family life and household tasks to a larger extent than is the case at present. The second part of the paper describes a qualitative study which NIPO conducted m 1990 on women in the Netherlands who combine their professional jobs with a family life. Points of interest in this study were: attitude towards individualisation, the psychological aspects of work, the consequences regarding consumer behaviour and the needs of women with regard to products and services.The women all worked full- or part-time and were aged between 18 and 65. The results of the study show that these women have special needs with regard to shopping facilities and that marketeers should pay more attention to women as being equally serious prospects as male clients.