The object

The object of the survey has been outlined by the Chairman of the Appointments Board's in the foreword to this report. The Board asked us to enquire into the present occupation of Cambridge graduates of 1952 and 1953, the levels of responsibility and the salaries they have attained, the satisfaction they derive from their occupations, and how they have progressed to their present positions. The Women's Appointments Board were also interested in the availability of married women graduates for work, in particular those who might be willing and able to return to work after a period occupied with domestic responsibilities. Questionnaires were sent out during July and August 1961, so that our information about the “present” relates mainly to the later part of 1961.

The sample

The Board had given careful thought to the question of the age of the graduates to be included in the survey. They wished them to have had sufficient time to become established in their work, to find out for themselves what was entailed by work in various fields, and to rectify if necessary any false starts. On the other hand they should be young enough to give the present generation of undergraduates some idea of what prospects lay ahead, in the not too distant future, in the various fields of work. Graduates of 1952 and 1953 seemed to be a good choice. Most of them would have done National Service either before or after graduation, but there would be few, if any, older men with war service. They would now mostly be in their early thirties, and would have started work long enough after the end of the war for conditions of employment to be fairly normal. Many of them would have had 8 or 9 years at work; long enough to become established in their careers, but not too long to remember the main events of their working lives.

The women graduates chosen were those of the same two years and also those of 1937 and 1938. The latter were included with the particular object of investigating the position of married women in their forties who might be available for work after the most pressing demands of young children were relaxed.