EDUCATED young women have been warned about the dangers of trying to become "superwoman" by the head of Bolton School Girls' Division.

Trying to combine a career and family can lead to emotional pitfalls, warned Jane Panton.

She joined the debate over working mothers during her speech at the sixth form presentation afternoon.

She praised her pupils for achieving high A-level passes and winning a string of impressive prizes, sponsorships and scholarships - often in traditional male areas such as engineering and physics. But she went on to say that many of society's concerns stemmed from the higher expectations of better educated women.

She said: "I do hope though that amongst this commendable drive to self fulfilment we are properly preparing our students for their responsibilities as women, which means in many cases also wives and mothers.

"Back in the days of my youth, the Swinging Sixties, Shirley Conron invented the Superwoman. The woman who was all things to all people, the career high flier, the devoted wife, the perfect mother.

"This mythological figure is now almost taken for granted and I still believe it can be at great emotional cost.

"It is not easy to have both a full time career and to bring up a family no matter how much society has changed and developed in terms of support available." Miss Panton, who is single and childless, stressed that she admired working women and believed they brought advantages to the workplace.

But she warned her girls of difficult decisions ahead and concluded: "Whatever you choose you must be able to live yourself afterwards."

Miss Panton also announced a major review of the sixth form curriculum and resources.

And she joined the great national A-level debate by announcing: "The Modular debate will run for more years yet but my own feeling is that it is a trend to be encouraged and is good for students."

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