Sex-role self-concept and persistence in a traditional vs nontraditional college major for women

This article reports a 3-year follow-up study of a sample of women engineering and home economics majors who were previously studied as freshmen. It was hypothesized that persistence in the two curricula would be related to sex roles, with feminine-typed women more likely to leave engineering and masculine-typed women more likely to leave home economics. The findings did not generally support this hypothesis, however. Women in the two majors who persisted were not found to differ significantly from women who changed majors or dropped out on either sex roles or on ratings given as freshmen of their satisfaction with and certainty of college major. Persisters in engineering had higher college entrance SAT math scores than changers or dropouts. Those who changed majors from home economics tended to go into less traditional fields than home economics. Nearly all of the women who changed from engineering chose another nontraditional or male-dominated field as their second major.     

ACHIEVEMENT STYLES OF WOMEN LEADERS AND THEIR PEERS: Toward an Understanding of Women and Leadership

Women's achievement was examined by studying the achievement styles and leadership outcomes of women college leaders as compared with those of a control sample of undergraduate men and women (Study 1) and with those of men college leaders (Study 2). Women leaders scored significantly higher than control women on six of nine achievement styles, scored higher than control men on three of nine, and derived satisfaction from a greater number of achievement sources than did women or men controls. Women leaders perceived more support from their institutions and attached more importance to contributing to their community and becoming an authority in their field than did men or women controls. Achievement style was related to leadership role, with endorsement of six styles correlated with attaining leadership. Achievement profiles of women leaders were replicated in Study 2. Men and women college leaders showed similar profiles on eight of nine achievement styles. However, women leaders were significantly less likely to derive satisfaction from competitive achievement than were men leaders.     

Gender and sex role differences in the perception of social support

This study examined the relationships among support types (i.e., emotional, instrumental, and nonintimate social participation), gender, sex role orientation, and stress level among college undergraduates (N=253). Dependent variables included need, perceived availability, and satisfaction with support. Sex differences were found only in emotional support, with men reporting less need, perceived availability, and marginally less satisfaction than women. The only gender by sex role interaction was on need for emotional support. Traditional sex-typed men reported less need than traditional women, whereas there was no difference between androgynous men and women. While sex differences do exist for emotional support, the effects of sex role orientation on perceptions of social support appears to be somewhat circumscribed.     

Androgyny in a male-dominated field: The relationship of sex-typed traits to performance and satisfaction in engineering

The relationship of sex-typed traits to performance and to satisfaction in engineering was investigated using a sample of men and women engineers with five years or less of professional work experience. Both men and women engineers high in instrumentality (androgynous and masculine) reported greater levels of supervisory and technical responsibility, salary, involvement in professional activities, and satisfaction than those low in instrumentality (feminine and undifferentiated). Expressiveness was not significantly related to any of the measures of performance or satisfaction. Although a few sex differences were found, the magnitude of the effects were generally smaller than those for instrumentality. Engineers' self-ratings of various abilities were also positively related to instrumentality. Only a small percentage of variance in the performance and satisfaction measures was accounted for by sex and sex-typed traits.     

Parental Identification and Educational Dissatisfaction in Troubled College Students

Summary

The hypothesis was tested that the greater development of career interests associated with a masculine-parent identification would contribute to the educational problems of the troubled liberal arts college student. This was ased upon the anticipated frustrative effects of low career relevance of liberal arts curricula upon students with clearer career interests. Eighty liberal arts students (45 males and 35 females), clients at a college counseling agency, were subdivided into groups based upon primary parental identification (father versus mother) and masculinity-femininity of the identification model. Masculine-identified males (but not females) more frequently demonstrated less satisfaction with their majors relative to their feminineidentified counterparts when subjective ratings of certainty, relevance, and general satisfaction were considered. A higher incidence of choice problems (no chosen major or one or more changes of major) was found for masculineparent identified Ss of both sexes.     

A model of career success: A longitudinal study of emergency physicians

Objective and subjective career success were hypothesized to mediate the relationships between sociodemographic variables, human capital indices, individual difference variables, and organizational sponsorship as inputs and a retirement decision and intentions to leave either the specialty of emergency medicine (EM) or medicine as output variables. Objective career success operationalized as the number of leadership positions held did not mediate the relationship, but income change and career satisfaction mediated the relationship between the hours worked and years employed in emergency medicine. Work centrality was significantly related to subjective career success more so for men than women and perceptions of success or self-efficacy were positively related to subjective career success for women, but not for men. The expected pattern of women indicating more difficulties with personal time and family time did not emerge; but women did indicate less perceived support from the organization, fewer EM leadership positions, less perceived control over their work situation and less organizational support than did men.     

Vocational interests of career and homemaker oriented women

Women who had completed the SVIB-W as freshmen in college were contacted 13 to 21 years later and were classified as career (N = 236) or homemaker (N = 527) oriented on the basis of their actual work experiences. Significant differences between the groups were found on 25 of the 44 occupational scales, one of the three nonoccupational scales, and four of the 19 basic interest scales. The interests of the homemaker oriented women were more similar to the interests of women in business, nonprofessional, and home economics occupations while the interests of the career oriented women were more similar to the interests of women in the verbal-linguistic, verbal scientific, and scientific occupations. The results are discussed in terms of previous research and Holland's Occupational Classification system.     

Interrole conflict among married women: The influence of husband and wife characteristics on conflict and coping behavior

The present research investigated the conflict that women experience between their home and nonhome roles. All of the women in the sample (N = 115) were married and living with their husbands, had at least one child living at home, and were college students. It was found that women who placed a similar level of importance on work as their husbands experienced less intense conflict than women who differed from their husbands in career orientation. In addition, the number of children at home was positively related to a woman's conflict when her husband was highly work oriented. A woman's use of reactive coping strategies was negatively related to her life satisfaction when her husband was dissatisfied with his own life.     

Gender Differences in Anticipated Salary: Role of Salary Estimates for Others,Job Characteristics,Career Paths,and Job Inputs

The purpose of this research was to compare pay expectations of women and men. Participants were 371 college students (261 women, 110 men; 94% White) from a variety of majors. Most students at this university are middle class. Consistent with prior research, women estimated significantly lower salaries at career entry and peak and rated family considerations and pleasant working conditions as significantly more important than did men. Men and women differed on salary estimates for others, influence of salary on decision to enter a field, time off for childrearing, career certainty, and weekly work hours. Controlling for average salaries in the listed job, job characteristic importance, career path, and job input differences eliminated the gender differences at entry and reduced the difference at peak.     

Facial action patterns, electromyography, and moods in response to an insoluble task as a function of sex and sex-role differences

College students of either androgynous or sex-typed orientation were randomly assigned to either an insoluble concept-formation task or a solvable one. Posttreatment scores were compared for measures of dysphoric mood (Multiple Affect Adjective List), electromyographic responses (corrugator and zygomatic), and discrete facial responses (Facial Action Coding System). In Study 1, 18 androgynous women were compared to 16 feminine women; in Study 2, 16 androgynous men were compared to 16 masculine men. The insoluble task was associated with more corrugator activity (frowning) than the solvable task in both studies. Feminine women displayed more corrugator responses across both tasks than androgynous women. However, masculine men did not differ from androgynous men in over-all corrugator response activity. Androgynous women smiled more than feminine women on the facial action coding measure. Men subjected to the insoluble task reported significantly more anxiety, depression, and hostility. Masculine men scored higher on anxiety during the insoluble task than androgynous men, while the latter scored somewhat higher on anxiety in the other condition.     

Men,women, and money: Exploring the role of gender,gender-linkage of college major and career-information sources in salary expectations

Research focused on salary expectations consistently reports gender-based differences in expectations for entry and peak career. Although a number of variables (e.g., value placed on work-facets, fair pay standards) have been found to mediate the relationship between gender and salary expectations, little research has attempted to assess how expectations may be formed. Based on suggestions by Martin (1989) and social comparison theory, we examined the role that sources of career information (e.g., professors, family) play in shaping college students' salary expectations. Results suggest: (1) differences in entry level salary expectations were associated with gender-linkage of college major and differences in peak salary expectations were associated with gender and gender-linkage of college major, (2) women gathered more information from female sources than did men, and men gathered more information from male sources than did women, and (3) career information was not predictive of either entry or peak salary expectations.     

THE INFLUENCE OF MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIPS ON WOMEN'S SENSE OF SELF AND CURRENT ROLE CHOICES

This study investigates the relationship of women's current role choices, role satisfaction, and self-esteem to their perceptions of the earlier relationship with their mothers and to their perceptions of their mothers' role choices and role satisfaction. Sixty-seven married women with preschool children were interviewed and completed self-report inventories. Results indicated that the women's primary role decisions of career, non-career work, or homemaking did not parallel those of their mothers but was related to their mothers' messages to them. In addition, career women and women at home reported having more choice in their decisions than did non-career working women. Women's self-esteem and role satisfaction were significantly enhanced ( p <.05) when the relationship with the mother was perceived as loving and accepting, with low hostility and low psychological control. In contrast, women's self-esteem and role satisfaction were generally unrelated to the retrospective reports of the mothers' roles and role satisfaction.     

Career specialty choice: A combined research-intervention project

This research describes and evaluates a workshop aimed at promoting career specialty choice and examines relationships between measured career specialty interests, work values, and personality type. Three consecutive classes of second-year medical students (N = 161) participated in a two-session specialty choice workshop. All participants in the study rated the usefulness of the workshop and reported their level of specialty choice certainty and satisfaction. They also responded to measures of medical specialty preference, work values, and personality type. Results indicated two distinct student subgroups of career-specialty-decided and -undecided students. The former subgroup evidenced more stability and certainty of specialty choice as well satisfaction with their choice. Both groups of students reported having benefited from the workshop. Significant gender differences in the relationships between scores on a measure of medical specialty preference and scores on measures of work values and personality emerged. Implications are discussed in terms of the differential career counseling needs of students either decided or undecided about their career specialty choices.     

ENGINEERING CAREERS: WOMEN IN A MALE-DOMINATED FIELD

A national survey was conducted to compare the background and career characteristics of men and women engineers differing in the number of years since they completed their BS degrees (0–5, 6–10, 11–15, and 16–20 years). The parents of women engineers were more likely to have college degrees and to be employed in professional positions than were the parents of men engineers. Women engineers were less likely to be married and were more likely to be childless than were the men. Both men and women were influenced by courses and work–related factors in their decisions to pursue engineering, but men made their career decisions sooner than women. Although men and women reported comparable levels of technical responsibility in their present jobs, gender differences favoring men were found for supervisory responsibility and salary among those with more than five years of experience, with the gap between men and women increasing with experience. Men with 16–20 years of experience and all four degree cohorts of women endorsed the opinion that there are better opportunities for men than women in engineering.     

Men in female-dominated professions: Distinguishing personality and background features

Personality and background features of men in female-dominated professions were assessed by comparing survey data on 54 men employed in atypical professions (A′s) with 63 men employed in sex-typical fields (S′s). Subjects were American born, college-educated males, under 50 years of age, employed in fields with over 75% male or female participation, and recruited in Atlanta in 1978. Subjects completed a biographical questionnaire, the Cattell 16 PF, and the Bem Sex Role Inventory under three instructional sets. In comparison with S′s the A′s showed lower adherence to traditional sex-role expectations on the Bem Sex Role Inventory, in the allotment of sex-typed household responsibilities, and in their greater “tender-minded” emotional sensitivity on the Cattell 16 PF. In terms of their personal histories, A′s more frequently reported having had employed mothers, having had distant relationships with their fathers, and having been positively influenced in their career choices by women. A′s more frequently experienced a death of a parent or sibling, or parental divorce or separation, and frequently mentioned such stresses as sensitizing them to their nurturant and emotional capabilities. There was also evidence that upward-mobility strivings may have contributed to atypical career choice, with A′s more frequently being members of racial minorities and/or of lower socioeconomic background. As expected, in contrast to S′s, A′s shared personality and socialization factors indicative of lower sex-typing, thus confirming the psychological significance of the sex composition of one's occupation for men as was confirmed earlier for women.     

Sex-role attitudes,curriculum choice,and career ambition: A comparison between women in typical and atypical college majors

This study of college women examines the relationship among sex-role attitudes, curriculum choice, and levels of educational and occupational aspirations and expectations. Data for analysis are from a 1977 survey of college students enrolled in home economics and agricultural curriculums in all southern land grant colleges and universities. Results show that sex-role ideology is only weakly associated with curriculum choice but is related to career ambitions for women in sex-typical and sex-atypical areas of study.     

Some considerations relating to the choice of an educational program

A random sample of 1098 new freshmen was cross-classified on sex and the extent to which the college major they selected was saturated with natural science and mathematics requirements. The responses of these students on 14 cognitive and 14 goal variables relating to the choice of an educational program were separately analyzed by means of the multivariate analysis of variance. The results of these analyses indicated that students entering natural science/mathematics programs tend to be oriented more towards the concrete and visible outcomes of an education and a career, e.g., training relevant to a career, an above average income, and success and recognition, than are students not choosing this type of program. Non-science students, on the other hand, value the interpersonal and usefulness to society outcomes of their educational and vocational pursuits. The results relating to the cognitive variables were less definitive, although students entering natural science/mathematics programs were more certain of successfully completing their educational program. Contrary to one of the major hypotheses the program groups did not differ with respect to the certainty of their choice of a college major. The results of this study were developed with a decision-making framework for choice of education and career.     

The effect of self‐regulated decision making on career path and major‐related career choice satisfaction

The present research examined the influence of self‐regulated decision making on satisfaction in career path (college major for Study 1, job for Study 2) and major‐related career choice. Results indicate a full mediating effect of fit in the relationship between self‐regulated decision making and satisfaction in career path. Self‐regulated decision making also influenced major–job congruence via satisfaction with a participant's college major. Findings suggest that individuals who possess self‐regulatory ability in decision‐making contexts were more likely to choose majors and jobs of good fit, experience satisfaction from their career decisions, and choose careers relevant to their college majors.     

Career Goals of College Women and Men and Perceived Achievement-Related Encouragement

Encouragements and discouragements for achievement-related behavior were reported in an interview setting by three groups of college seniors: Career women (n = 20), career men (n = 20), and traditional women (n = 19). Career women reported significantly more encouragement from teachers, family members (except parents), and significant others of the opposite sex than did either career men or traditional women. Career women also reported more encouragement from counselors and friends, while career men reported more encouragement from parents; however, these differences were not significant. Career women reported a significantly higher grade point average than either of the other groups. Implications of the results for the achievement behavior of women and men are considered.     

An investigation of racial differences on vocational variables among college women

This study used a sample of black and white college women matched on Duncan's (1961) socioeconomic indicator ratings to explore possible racial differences on vocationally relevant variables. There were no differences between the groups on age or educational level. The distribution of the parents' occupations by Holland type and the distribution of the subjects by their VPI type appeared to be quite similar. There were no significant differences based on: the relationship of the parents' occupational types to the subjects' VPIs: the relationship between the subjects' VPI types and their occupational choice or college major; the estimated likelihood of reaching the career goal; satisfaction with career choice or college major; and scores on two recent scales designed to measure vocational indecision. While no differences were found on the number of possible factors listed that might impede career goals, the distribution of the most important of these factors indicated there were differences between the two groups. These findings are discussed relative to their implications for interpreting previous research and carrying out future studies.