Young Women's Expected and Preferred Patterns of Employment and Child Care

Researchers have consistently found that evenfemale students who expressed a high value for bothcareer and family roles usually expected to compromisetheir careers to accommodate family responsibilities. However, with the steadily increasinginvolvement of women in careers, it is reasonable to askwhether students still share these expectations.Furthermore, the relationship between expectation andlater behavior merits investigation. This studyaddressed the two questions by determining thepreferences and expectations for career and family rolesof 54 white female students in senior high school, andagain four years later. On both occasions, themajority expected continuous employment. Over time,their values did not change markedly but a discrepancyemerged between their preferences and theirexpectations.