Perceptions of male models of femininity related to career choice.

Career Counseling for Women

A large national sample of high school seniors rated their preferences for the allocation of work and family duties within their own prospective marriages. The results indicate that many seniors favor half-time or full-time work for wives without children. On the other hand, the majority prefer that the mother of preschool children stay home, although half-time work is acceptable to many. Respondents who are male or White or did not have a working mother themselves are somewhat more conservative on these issues. Virtually all seniors view less than full-time employment by the husband as unacceptable. With regard to child care and housework, most seniors prefer equal sharing between the spouses. A comparison of four senior classes reveals a slight trend from 1976 to 1979 toward increased sharing of duties.

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Paid work, child care, and housework: A national survey of high school seniors' preferences for sharing responsibilities between husband and wife

The flexible boundaries of the midlife period are sometimes said to include persons from ages 35 to 64. Midlife is a heterogeneous category, subsuming decisively different life courses. What “midlife” entails is a function, at least in part, of experiences and transitions in earlier periods. Women who currently fall into this category include the first of the baby boom, the veterans of the Feminine Mystique and the Great Depression eras and more than a few flappers. Different birth cohorts among today’s midlife women experienced predictable life transitions in different historical times. In addition, individuals within birth cohorts differ in the timing, sequencing, spacing, and duration of such life transitions as completing schooling, starting a family, and establishing careers.

Multiple Roles of Midlife Women

The orientations of female college students toward education, family, and work were assessed in 1969 and 1973. Questionnaires revealed that in both years, the women were more strongly committed to the principles of sexual equality than they were to incorporating these principles into their own lives. Furthermore, although the women sampled in 1973 were markedly more feminist than those of 1969 in their general attitudes toward sexual equality, they were only slightly more feminist in their own personal plans and expectations. Commitment to marriage and motherhood was strong in both samples, but among those intending to combine marriage, motherhood, and a career, there was, in 1973, an increase in the percentage planning a “double-track” career-homemaking pattern and a reduction in the percentage planning to interrupt their careers for childrearing. The data suggest that these changes occurred both among women just entering college and among those who were on campus during this four year period.

Helen Y. Nelson

Papers

Attitudes of High School Students and Young Adults toward the Gainful Employment of Married Women