調查:30歲大關讓女生重愛情輕事業

Women approaching 30 might once have modelled themselves on the feisty, ambitious heroine of the film Working Girl - willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead in business.

But it seems today's 30-year-olds are more likely to get their inspiration from hopeless romantic Bridget Jones.

Finding a man and settling down is the top priority for two-thirds of women born in 1979, a survey has found.

The poll of 1,800 women approaching the milestone birthday found that 70 per cent considered it to be the right time to put their relationships and personal lives ahead of their careers.

More than 80 per cent said they thought it was the perfect age to get married.

But while love was a priority, only one in five of the women polled said they expected to be more attractive to the opposite sex, the Turning 30 report for Elle magazine found.

A third of the women thought they would be more unappealing and the same proportion said entering their fourth decade 'filled them with dread'.

The survey bucks the trend of the past decade, which has seen women prioritise their career well into their thirties. This has led to a rise in women having their first child in their late 30s and early 40s.

The number of live births to mothers over 40 almost doubled between 1997 and 2007, from 12,914 to 25,350.

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, author of Why Women Mean Business, said it was good to redefine goals. 'Women don't necessarily want to get to the top,' she said.

'They want to be excellent at everything they do, as mother, daughter, wife, girlfriend, professional and volunteer.'

以往的“奔三女”們可能會以電影《上班女郎》中精力充沛、雄心勃勃的女主人公爲榜樣，爲了事業成功不惜一切代價。

而如今的“奔三女”們則似乎更傾向於從（《BJ單身日記》中）無望而浪漫的布里奇特•瓊斯身上受到啓發。

一項最新調查表明，在1979年出生的女性中，有三分之二的人認爲找到一個伴侶，讓生活穩定下來是頭等大事。

這項對1800名即將跨過30歲“門檻”的女性的調查發現，70%的受訪者認爲現在最應該考慮的是感情和個人生活問題，而非事業。

80%的受訪者認爲，現在是結婚的黃金年齡。

Elle雜誌開展的這項“邁進三十”的調查發現，儘管愛情成爲眼下的首要問題，但僅有五分之一的受訪女性認爲自己對異性的吸引力增強。

三分之一的受訪女性認爲自己的魅力會下降，同等比例的受訪者稱進入人生的第四個十年“讓他們覺得恐懼”。

該調查結果與過去十年的流行趨勢恰好相反。在過去十年間，女性在三十多歲時通常將事業擺在首位，這一趨勢導致在快到40歲和40歲出頭才生第一個孩子的女性數量增加。

從1997年至2007年間，40歲以上女性安全生育的數量增長了近一倍，從12914例增至25350例。

《女人不容小覷》一書的作者阿維娃•維滕貝格•考克斯稱女性重新定義人生目標的想法非常好。她說：“女人不一定要去爭第一。”

“她們希望在各方面都做得優秀，無論是作爲母親、女兒、妻子、女友、職場人士還是志願者。”

Vocabulary:

model on:以……爲榜樣

feisty:full of spirit or pluck; frisky or spunky（精力充沛的或活躍的）

unappealing: not appealing to the senses, as in appearance, taste, or aroma.（不吸引人的：形象，味道或氣味不吸引人的）

buck the trend: 逆市而動