STEREOTYPES abound about the Hongkong woman. We need look no further than a cinema poster or any glossy advertisement to understand that fact. She must always smile, preen and please, as those cringe-inducing commercials for a certain brand of cognac confirm.
She lives, or is supposed to live as a walking, talking, charming, life-support system for her man and family but must never be seen to be anything but submissive when it comes to standing by him.
It is with a certain satisfaction then that Paper 3 in the J. Walter Thompson Marketwise series The Emergence of Modern HK Women 1960-2000 , shows the marketeers have got it completely wrong.
The creative types who produce the images of modern times might think females aspire to be beautiful and slyly manipulative and to seek men of means but they have to get real.
The survey says women at every social and economic level believe themselves to be complex, intelligent and interesting. They want to work. They want to contribute equally to family decisions, including expenditure, but they want to be a good mother too.
So, depending on education, status and income, they are upper-class superwomen juggling work, family and household chores with the usual associated stress or they aspire to such a life for their children if they can't achieve it for themselves.
