I am a child of the 70s and so in my world, western women have always had the vote, enjoyed freedom of speech and been working towards total equality at home and work.

I was brought up to believe that I could have anything if I worked hard enough and nothing was out of reach just because I was a girl.

The original Superwoman Nicola Horlick - a City high-flyer and mother of five, was held up as an ideal of how a woman could live her life successfully in the boardroom, kitchen and bedroom.

My female friends and I went to university, got good jobs and travelled the world without anyone batting an eyelid.

But as we are now starting to settle down to getting married and having families I have noticed a worrying trend.

A woman 'could' have it all has become a woman 'should' have it all - and the result is a generation of guilt-filled girls who are being judged for not being the best at everything.

Women have fought for generations for the right to work, whether or not they have children.

But now if new mothers don't work they are made to feel they are letting down the 'women's cause.'

And those who do return to work are pushing themselves to do a better job than they did before they had a baby.

If they can't work the overtime they used to, they feel they are letting themselves down - even though they are heading home to look after their children.

Young women are turning into nervous wrecks as they try (and fail) to be perfect mothers, wives and workers.

But it's not men, society or the government putting this pressure on the girls.

It is us young professionals who are our own worst enemy - brought up to believe we could have it all we have somehow warped the ideal so we feel we are letting ourselves, our partners, our children and the whole of womenkind down if we don't achieve it all.

If we can't hold down a great job, bring up our children on our own and have an amazing love life then we feel guilty - we are beating ourselves up with some mad ideal that can't exist in the real world.

A new survey estimates 250,000 women in the UK have high powered jobs and children - that may be true but how many of them have learnt the art of saying no or are still beating themselves up for paying for a nanny or eating ready meals?

No-one can be great at everything but this generation of women believes that we should be fantastic at everything we turn our hands to.

It's about time we cut ourselves some slack and were a bit kinder to ourselves.

Young mothers should be praised for simply getting through each day.

We should learn to reward ourselves for holding down more than one role - not beat ourselves up for failing to be the best at everything we try. Choice is all about having the freedom to decide our goals not having to tick every possible box infront of us.

It is so important that this generation of women looks back at what our mothers and their mothers worked so hard to achieve before we start influencing our daughters and making them feel they are worthless unless they can achieve the impossible.

Past generations wanted to give us the opportunities and choices to do what we wanted - not a straitjacket of unreasonable demands to measure against.