determining career orientations in women from different social-class backgrounds

Sex Roles, Vol. 23, Nos. 9/10, 1990

Determining Career Orientations in Women from Different Social-Class Backgrounds 1

Miil icent Poo le 2 and Janice Langan-Fox Monash University

Mary O m o d e i University of Melbourne

This study examines career orientations in women from high- and low- socioeconomic status backgrounds, using a longitudinal data set collected over a period o f lO years, f rom 1973 to 1982. When first contacted, respon- dents were 18 years o f age. The final data collection in 1982 resulted in a sample o f some 1300 women. The longitudinal data were analyzed using LISREL structural equation modeling and were guided by a theoretical framework developed by Krumboltz (1981) which focuses on the process o f decision-making. Results f rom the study indicated that there were effects o f social-class background in the development o f women's career orientations, over the secondary school-early career development stage. Group differences in determinants o f orientation were found for political attitudes, occupational interests, senior school achievement, and professional attainment. Differences were also found in the influence o f motivational tendencies and work satisfaction on model variables for the two groups o f women. The benefit o f the decision-making theoretical framework and its further development for use in studies o f career development generally are discussed.

1Grateful acknowledgement is given to the Australian Research Grants Committee, who supported the present project.

The authors wish to thank Emeritus Professor David Beswick of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne, for the use of data from the Career Development Project.

ZTo whom correspondence should be addressed at Faculty of EduCation, Monash University, Clayton 3168, Victoria, Australia.

471 0360-0025/90/1100-0471506.00/0 © 1990 Plenum Publishing Corporation

472 Poole, Lngan-Fox, and Omodei

Although there is a great deal of research conducted on aspects of women's careers, there appear to be few studies which focus on family and career "orientations." Rather, the topic has been covered in a fragmented way, with a number of different approaches investigating aspects of these orientations, such as adjustment of career to family (Alpert & Culbertson, 1987), women's career and family motives (Krogh, 1985), and multiple-role stress (Pietromona- co et al., 1986). Over the years, interpretations offered for explaining the conceptual nature of "career" and "family" orientations have generally been fairly loose.

In the past, career and family orientations have often been described in relation to roles and choices. Terms used in these analyses included traditional/nontraditional, typical/atypical, homemaker/career-oriented, and so on. Falkowski and Falk (1983) have suggested that the choice to be a "homemaker," like the choice to have a career, can be conceptualized as a simple occupational outcome. Cochran (1983) states that "career orientation" is a multifaceted construct and isolates four general aspects of a career orientation. In summary, he believes that a person with a strong career orientation is one who has established an unambiguous occupational direction which is part of a bright outlook upon one's career future, which is self-relevant, and which is grounded in a positive personal assessment. There is thus much scope for greater clarification.

Literature analyzing female life choices (related to the issue of family/career orientation), as they proceed from secondary school to work or higher education and then to marriage or singlehood, usually earmark factors such as school subject choice, achievement motivation, parental expectations, occupational choices, and past sex-role socialization practices as important but frequently do not construct models of major predictors of orientations. Nor do they generally study the operation of these orientations over any significant period of time.

The present study, using longitudinal data, thus set out to trace the career orientations of individuals over a 10-year span (Poole et al., 1989). Data were collected on aspects of careers including occupational status, occupational aspirations and expectations, career and family orientations, motivational tendencies, occupational interests, etc.

Specifically the aim of this paper is (a) to clarify further career and family orientations; (b) to bring together some of the scattered literature which concerns these orientations in women to assist in that clarification; (c) to present a theoretical framework for the analysis of Career Orientations; and (d) to present results of research analysing these orientations in women from different social class backgrounds.

Women's Career Orientations and Social Class 473

PREDICTING CAREER ORIENTATIONS IN WOMEN

While many authors draw attention to change in women's attitudes, and their willingness to take on multiple roles, it has been thought that a career or family orientation simply reflects individual difference characteristics which underlie the dispositional explanation of job attitudes. Such a perspective implies that individual differences override group or "subgroup" differences. For instance, Staw and Ross (1985) suggest that "job attitudes may reflect a ...trait that predisposes individuals to see positive or negative content in their lives .... Differences in individual temperament . . . . . ranging from clinical depression to a very positive disposition, could influence the information individuals input, recall, and interpret within various social sit- uations, including work" (p. 471). In support of this argument, Arvey et al. (1989) reported that individuals "seek out" environments that are compati- ble with their particular genetic :makeups and that the process is probably mediated through intellectual mechanisms. That is, intelligent individuals might seek out environments that are relatively complex and challenging. The authors suggest that individuals appear to bring important predispositions to the job that may be more difficult to modify than previously ac- knowledged and that prediction of future job satisfaction, job choice, or job orientation may be possible from knowledge of current satisfactions and preferences.

While the studies mentioned above take a consistency view of behavior, other research, particularly with women, stresses a change view of career preferences and environments (Baruch, 1967; French & Lesser, 1964). Astin and Myint (1971), for example, who followed up 5387 women 5 years after high school, found that scholastic aptitudes and high educational aspirations were the best precoUege predictors of a career orientation. Analysis of the stability of career plans indicated "feminine" occupational groups were most stable (housewife, teaching, health fields, and the arts).

Astin (1976) has explored both change and complexity in women's motivational patterns as regards career and family domains. She reported that women with high career motivation prior to marriage and the birth of children were observed to have a drop in measured motivation during the period when their children were young, but their motivation regained its form- er high level when these women viewed their children as no longer needing their full time presence in the home. Stewart (2980) designed research to ex- amine the role of two personality variables, the need for achievement and self-definition in the prediction of life patterns with women, 10 years after graduation. Stewart (1980) states that a woman's life pattern is some corn-

474 Poole, Langan-Fox, and Omodei

plex function of her personality and her family situation with situational characteristics defining the broad limitations of a woman's behavior and personality characteristics defining the choice of a particular behavior within those broad limits. Research by Lesser et al. (1963) indicated the importance of career versus family orientation in predicting female life patterns, while Farmer (1985) has found that a homemaking commitment was negatively related to long-range career motivation in young women. Similarly, Stewart (1980) found that the need for achievement among unmarried and childless women is positively related to career persistence, while it was clearly unrelated to career persistence among married mothers.

This pattern of change, complexity, and unpredictability or inconsistency in career pattens is suggested again in work by Almquist et al. (1980), who studied the career patterns of 64 women 7 years after graduation. From their findings, these suthors thought that females at age 27/28 had not settled into any one combination yet, and the hypothesized "contingency strategy" was suggested to be partly accountable for this.

While numerous authors have examined career and family orientations from varying perspectives, there are relatively few studies which have considered these orientations in groups of women from different social class backgrounds. Often, a person's expectations of what they intend doing in the future is a good predictor of outcome and this can be class related rather than say just disposition. In attempting to answer the question, "Who ex- pects to become a homemaker?" Falkowski and Falk (1983) found that young women in high school who expect to be homemakers at age 30 are dispropor- tionately represented by fathers with lower occupational status, nonemployed mothers, rural residences, nonacademic track placement, and lower scholastic performance. Sholomskas and Axelrod (1986), in their study of upper- and middle-class women with preschool children, career women, and homemakers, reported that the decision to enact their primary roles was a personal choice and working women's choices were perceived as evolving from personal choice constrained by financial necessity.

Other studies report the influence of socialization in the home and the effects on the development of attitudes toward work and self-direction. Kohn (1984), for example, studied the relation between social class and work and found that parents' social class positions "profoundly" influence their values (preferences) and child-rearing practices. The higher the parent's social class position (defined by education and occupational position), the more likely he or she is to value self-direction in his or her children. Similarly, Ogbu (1981) found that parents' values and beliefs and socialization practices lead to inculcation of particular competencies they anticipate their child will need in later life. Self-direction could thus be especially relevant later on in the development of career orientation, for instance, self-directedness has been


found to be important in highly career-oriented women (Spence & Helm- reich, 1980), but there is no consideration of the role that social class might play in such development.

While the influence of parent socialization practices has been shown to influence career orientations for girls and boys differentially, the impact of social class has been less well documented, except in relation to mobility studies. For example, Peterson et al. (1982) demonstrated how traditional sex-role attitudes reflected parents' decisions regarding the career goals of adolescents. In their study, attention was focused on 96 families, each having both a male and a female between 14 andl8 years old. Results indicated that differential preference given to adolescent goals was determined by gender: fathers preferred domestic roles for their daughters more than did the adolescent girls themselves. Such traditional sex role attitudes have also been found to relate to socio-economic status with the influence of class on adolescent career orientations found to be crucial to the development of future career paths (Carpenter & Western, 1984; Williams, 1987).

Political orientation can also be an important factor in socialization. Politics can be a key issue not just as far as general socialization in the home is concerned, but particularly as far as it affects certain socioeconomic groups. Although such a variable has not been used in studies of women's "career orientation" or indeed in studies of women's careers generally, in a compara- tive analysis of two social class groups, political orientation was thought to be a relevant variable. In a review of the literature, only one study concerning career orientations has been found to use "political orientation." Elder and MacInnis (1983) found that in their longitudinal study of women, the achievement imagery of "career-oriented" girls was significantly different to a "family-oriented" group in being related to conversational topics such as politics. It therefore seemed useful to explore this aspect of socialization further in the present study.

In summary, career orientaiton, while generally viewed in dispositional terms, or as changing life patterns, preferences, and patterns of socialization, needs to be viewed also in terms of life circumstances, e.g., social/class, financial constraints, and the like. To this end, a theoretical model was developed to take account of this broader set of factors identified in the literature.

THEORETICAL MODEL

A theoretical model, which draws on some of the variables found relevant to career orientations and which have been described in the studies mentioned above, is outlined below. These variables include those thought to


be important to individual differences such as work satisfaction and occupational interests, as well as other variables which could highlight socioeconomic group differences, for example, the influence of family socialization experiences, own-family constraints, educational attainment, career planning and commitment, motivation, and employment status.

The theoreized model was drawn from Krumboltz's social learning theory of career selection (1981) model as this had the potential to include both disposition and life circumstance conditions. The theory attempts to explain how educational and occupational preferences and skills are acquired and how selections of courses, occupations, and fields of work are made. It "iden- tifies the interactions of genetic factors, environmental conditions, learning experiences, cognitive and emotional responses, and performance skills that produce movement along one career path or another. Combinations of these factors interact in different ways to produce different decisions" (p. 43). Genetic factors predetermine the influence of underlying environmental, economic, social, and cultural events and conditions which impinge upon the individual's learning experiences over time. It is the sequential cumulative effects of numerous learning experiences affected by various environmental circumstances and the individual's cognitive and emotional reactions to these learning experiences and circumstances that cause a person to make decisions toward a particular career path. The model is basically linear and is highly descriptive (whereby experience is cumulative). It was not meant to be directly applied to path analytical models, and the theoretical model in the present study has taken the basic components of the theory and adapted them to accommodate the sequential data collection periods of this longitudinal project into a new predictive theoretical framework.

HYPOTHESIZED MODEL

Figure 1 shows the theoretical model drawn conceptually from Krum- boltz's theory (1981), and Fig. 2 shows the operationalization of these concepts through the selection of independent and dependent variables for the hypothesized model, drawn from the above analysis of factors influencing women's career orientation. The arrows indicate the hypothesized relationships, derived from the theoretical model and the analysis of the career orientation literature. In accordance with Krumboltz's theory, which assumes that variables have a sequential influence, no one variable was taken to be more important than any other variable.

Variables theorized from our analysis of literature on predicting career orientations in women to be similar to constructs in Krumboltz's theory are described in Table I and take account of the longitudinal design of the study.

Women's Career Orientations and Social Class

N 11

Fig. I. Theoretical model predicting task approach skiUs outcome.

477

METHOD

Sample

In 1973, a sample of 5000 students in their final year of secondary school, from 10 nonmetropolitican regions and 3 metropolitan areas of Aus- tralia, were asked to provide background social and educational data and a view of their plans and aspirations for further education and career development. This sample, originally part of the Regional Colleges Project at the Australian National University, was followed up in 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1982, during which entry into higher education and progress into major professional fields was studied in some detail. The final data collection in 1981/1982 resulted in a sample of 3000 subjects which numbers some 1300 women. Variables included in the present study were taken from questionnaire material obtained in 1973, 1976, and 1982. Because the scale "Career Orientation 1982" was construct~.d from a set of questions answered only by women, only data for women were used in the presented analysis. In 1973, information was gathered from students in their matriculation year about their parents' socioeconomic status (SES). This was subsequently coded into "high" or "low" family of origin status by taking a median split of the hierar- chical ordering of socioeconomic status. This hierarchial ordering of class

478 Poole, Langan-Fox, and Omodel

Fig. 2. Theoretical model of career orientation in women.

consisted of a composite score of parents' occupation and education, with a double weighting made of father's occupation.

In 1973, when subjects were 18 years old and in their final year of secondary school, model variables which were measured included Senior School Attainment, Intrinsic Occupational Interest, and Exploratory Tendency. In 1976, when subjects were 21 years old, variables measured included Career Orientation 1976, Work Satisfaction 1976, and Political Orientation. In 1982 when subjects were about 27 years of age, variables in the model included Career Orientation 1982, College/University Attainment, In~trinsic Occupational In- terest 1982, Work Satisfaction 1982, Current Family Status, External Con- straints, and a Career Planning Trait.

The aim of the analyses presented in this paper was to trace the development of a career orientation in these two groups of women over a period of 10 years and to assess the significance of the effects of certain variables, on a career orientation in 1982. The variables included in the assessed model are described below.

Measures

Variables used in the model were all scored in a favorable direction. Career Orientation (1982) was a scale which has a standardized item


Table I. List of Model Variables and Their Conceptualization in Regard to Krumholtz's Theoretical Constructs

Model variable Theoretical construct

Dependent variable Career Orientation 1982

Career Orientation 1976

Senior School Attainment 1973 and College~University Attainment 1982

Intrinsic Occupational Interest 1973 and Intrinsic Occupational Interest 1982

Work Satisfaction 1976 and Work Satisfaction 1982

Current Family Statb~

Independent variable External Constraints

Political Orientation

Conceptualized as a Task Approach Skill (outcome). Task approach skills are defined as cognitive and performance abilities and emotional predispositions for coping with the environment, interpreting the environment in relation to self-observation generalizations, and making covert or overt predictions about future events. Task Approach Skills include work habits, mental sets, etc.

Measured differently in 1982, was conceptualized as interests and preferences generalized from prior learning experiences and as such were consequences or outcomes, or "Self-Observation Generalizations" (pleasure reactions and preferences). An individual can observe her/his own performance in relation to the performance of others and can make generalizations about it.

Measured the consequences of Instrumental Learning Experiences. Instrumental Learning Experiences (consequences) included direct effects produced by the action such as self-feedback, verbal feedback from other individuals, observable results, etc.

Conceptualized under the construct Self-Observation Generalizations (preferences-outcome). Thus preferences were again assessed, but differently, through examining responses to "Occupational Interests."

Were also taken as preferences and outcomes, con- ceptuaiized through the construct, Self-Observation Generalizations.

Presumed to act as a moderator on career decision making and were conceptualized to be Environ- mental Conditions and Events (Influencer) affecting one's career. Krumboltz theorized that Environ- mental Conditions and Events were factors outside the control of any one individual and influence one's destiny. They can include family training experiences and resources, community influences, etc.

Financial and nonfinancial constraints were conceived to be Environmental Conditions and Events influencing one's career decision-making. These constraints were those that the subject perceived to have operated in the distant or retrospective past.

Conccplala!iTed as past Associative Learning Experien- ces (Influencer) which now influenced current attitudes and behavior. Associative Learning Experiences occur through observational learning and generalizations experienced about occupations,


Table 1. Continued

Model variable Theoretical construct

Exploratory Tendencies

A Career Planning Trait

groups, etc. Pairing of stimuli (the observation/generalization associated with occupations, groups, etc.) occurring through classical condition- ing. Thus, orientations were thought to have developed at some time in the past in the subject's parents' home, through learned observations and generalizations made about particular groups, e.g., political groupings/parties.

Measured perceived responses to exploratory and curiosity-arousing stimuli and represented an individual's past learning experiences, including antecedent responses, or Instrumental Learning Experiences (influencer).

Assumed to have developed over time, early on in the secondary school experience, and thus was conceived as an independent variable. A career planning trait was conceptualized as A Task Approach Skill (Influencer), which, as already described, represents an individual's work habits, performance standards or values, perceptual and cognitive processes, mental sets, etc.

ilpha o f .74 on eight items. The scale comprised o f items which only wom- ~n in the sample answered and included "Do you think that you can main- ~ain your career in the workforce (not necessarily continuously) and have a family?" In general the scale assesses the degree to which women thought they would make decisions which favored career over family concerns.

Other dependent variables in the model included the following. (1) Career Orientation 1976 measured an interest or ou tcome variable

and was essentially fantasy items about the kind o f preference peo- ple had in reading and spending their spare t ime and spare money, indicating preferences with regard to involvement with the oppo- site sex and in prepara t ion for a career. Career Orienta t ion 1976 measured the early development o f career orientat ions and, thus, was different f rom Career Orientat ion 1982 when individuals had to make future predictions o f their decisions as regards career over family concerns. The Career Orientat ion scale (1976) had a standardized item alpha o f .71 for seven items. I tems included "I think a lot about advancement in m y profession."

(2) Senior School Attainment (1973), a derived variable, was the students' report of their final-year secondary school examination results in the fo rm o f a score which takes the students ' results in their "best four" subjects + 10o70 o f any addit ional subjects taken.


(3) College~University Attainment (1982) was a composite index constructed largely from retrospective information provided on education when the subject was 27 years of age. This index combined information on level of qualifications obtained and was combined with information provided by the respondent on the grade levels, special awards, etc., of achievements in the studies which had been undertaken.

(4) Intrinsic Occupational lnterest (1973) was the mean of responses to 16 questions concerning intrinsic rewards to be obtained in a job.

(5) Intrinsic Occupational lnterest (1982) was the mean of responses to a question regarding desire for an interest in future jobs.

(6) Work Satisfaction 1976 was the mean of responses to items in 1976, designed to assess liked intrinsic aspects of one's present job and feelings about job.

(7) Work Satisfaction 1982 was the mean of liked intrinsic aspects of one's present job.

(8) Current Family Status included Marital and Parental Status (1982). These were hypothesized to sometimes act as a potential external constraint on career orientations. Marital status and parental status were each obtained by taking responses to a single item.

A number of independent variables were ordered according to Krum- boltz's theory (1981) and were hypothesized to influence the dependent variables.

These were as follows. (1) External Constraints comprised financial and nonfinancial con-

straints (1982), was a composite variable which combined responses to a number of questions pertaining to perceived restrictions on op- portunity in career, and covered reported difficulties affecting career at some stage in the past, such as financial constraints, family and personal problems, etc.

(2) Political Orientation was assessed in 1976, through obtaining the mean of responses to a question which requested a participant to rate their position along the political spectrum, from 1 = far left to 9 = far right.

(3) An "Exploratory Tendency"comprised the mean of the following: (i) Curiosity (1973): A self-report inventory of 16 questions

covering behavior that demonstrates curiosity (see Beswick, 1974), especially thinking about and showing interest in strange, unusual, and puzzling things.

(ii) School subject interest (1973): Responses to 10 items designed to tap general degree of interest in school subjects taken by individuals.


('fii) Preparedness to leave home (1973): Responses to a question asking participants whether they were prepared to leave home to attend a tertiary institution.

(4) A Career Planning trait was obtained from a response to a question on a 1982 questionnaire, as to whether the subject had always had a clear idea of career direction.

Analytic Procedures

Estimates of the respective coefficients of the paths in the hypothesized model were obtained by performing a LISP, EL VI (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1984) analysis of the intercorrelation matrix of the model yariables. The LISREL program utilizes a maximum-likelihood estimation procedure, model parameters being optimally estimated so that the variance-covariance matrix implied by the model is as close as possible to the observed (sample) variance-covariance matrix. LISREL permits simultaneous estimation of all the effects in the model. Such an analysis of the intercorrelation matrix provides the following estimates: (a) path coefficients for the causal effect of independent variables on dependent variables and for the effect of dependent variables on subsequent dependent variables, (b) correlations between independent variables, and (c) correlations between residuals of dependent variables. The latter estimates represent the amount of covariation between pairs of dependent variables which is not accounted for by the hypothesized causal effects of prior variables in the model.

Estimates are reported for all paths specified in the theoretically based model, avoiding the doubtful practice of presenting only significant paths, with the implication that they were the only paths in the initial conceptual model. LISREL also provides a number of estimates of the overall fit of the model which are appropriate for larger sample sizes, namely, the AGFI (adjusted goodness of fit index), a measure of the relative amount of vari- ances and covariances jointly accounted for by the model, and the RMSR (root mean square residual), a measure of the average of the residual vari- ances and covariances when the observed and predicted covariance matrices are compared. Because an intercorrelation matrix is analyzed, this RMSR is the average difference between the predicted and the observed zero-order correlations.

RESULTS

Models were calculated separately for low- and high-SES women. As is common in large-scale self-administered survey questionnaires, a propor-


tion of variables had missing values. However, excluding cases which were missing in only one variable would have resulted in a substantial reduction in sample size. Therefore pairwise deletion of missing values was used to obtain the estimates reported and discussed below. An analysis was also per- formed using listwise deletion and these results were compared with those obtained using a pairwise deletion. An inspection of both the overall fit and the individual parameter estimates did not reveal any substantial differences between alternative procedures for treating missing data.

Results are presented in Fig. 3, with intercorrelations between model variables for the two groups reported in Tables II and III.

The assessed model for low-SES women (N = 797) had a chi-square statistic of 239 (df = 62), a Goodness of Fit Index of .93, and a Root Mean Square Residual of .055. Hoelter's Critical Number (CN) was used to assess the goodness of fit implied by this chi-square value. The critical number obtained was 284, which is above the figure Hoelter suggests indicates that the model adequately reproduces an observed covariance structure. The assessed model for high-SES women (N = 692) had a chi-square statistic of 248 (df = 62), a Goodness of Fit Index of .91, a Root Mean Square Residual of .057, and a Hoelter's Critical Number (CN) of 237.

Significant differences were found between women in low and women in high family of origin socioeconomic status. Exploratory Tendencies at age

Fig. 3. Estimated model of career orientation in women showing standardized path coefficients.

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17, which included levels o f curiosity, interest in subjects at school, and a readiness to leave home, had different effects on Occupational Interests and Senior School Atta inment (HSC) at that age, for the two class groups. To a greater extent than for Iow-SES women, exploratory tendencies of high- SES women influenced their School Attainment in 1973 (beta = . 13 and .06, respectively). However, this pattern was reversed for Occupational interests at that time, with Exploratory Tendencies determining the Occupational In- terests of women in low- (beta = .21), but not high- (beta = . 11) SES groups.

Regarding political preferences (toward the right or left of the political spectrum) at age 21 in 1976, few or no effects were found for Iow-SES women of political attitudes on 1976 career orientations. However, a right-wing attitude predicted a career orientation in high-SES women (beta = .21). Six years later, in 1982, this pattern was no longer evident. At age 27, no differences were apparent between the two socioeconomic groups, with left-wing political attitudes having a moderate effect on career orientation among both working- and middle-class women (beta = - 11 amd - 10, respectively). 1976 Work Satisfaction had a modest influence on 1982 Work Satisfaction for Iow-SES women (beta = . 14), but no effect was found for this relationship for high-SES women. Presumably for them, work satisfaction in early adulthood is poorly predicted by job satisfaction in their late twenties. Instead, their 1982 Work Satisfaction at that age better determines their desired or aspired occupational interests in 1982 (beta = .31) than Iow-SES women (beta = .21), suggesting that high-SES women are finding a closer fit between what they want in a job and what they are actually doing in their current job.

Differences were also found between College/University Attainment and professional attainment. College and University Attainment powerfully determines professional at tainment for Iow-SES women (beta = .52), indicating that factors other than credentials influence professional attainment for high-SES women (beta = .35). Nevertheless, in high-SES women, Col- lege/University Attainment has a stronger effect on a career orientation than it does for Iow-SES women (beta = .17 and .05, respectively). Other factors, such as having professional at tainment (beta = . 10) and occupational interests (beta = . 18), are more effective in determining a career orientation in women f rom working-class backgrounds. Having professional status is not causal o f a career orientation in high-SES women (beta = - . 08 ) .

Regardless of class, effects o f marital and parental status on Attain- ment and a Career Orientation were found. Predictably, being a parent had a negative effect on the attainment of College/University qualifications (beta = - .26 and - .22) and on obtaining professional status (beta = - . 17 and - . 14). Thus, the results indicate either that those who were parents at age 27 had not obtained these qualifications or that parenting itself is a constraint on professional career development. Not surprisingly, parental status was


also a negative determinant of a career orientation (beta = - 20 and - 18), as was, albeit to a lesser extent, marital status (beta = - 14 and -0 8 ) .

DISCUSSION

The original questionnaires developed for the present study were not designed with the present theoretical framework or data analytic procedures in mind. The present study involved major secondary data analysis. Conse- quently the constructs included in the current model were not as precisely operationalized as would have been the case in primary design conditions. It is argued that the measurement procedures adopted are most likely to have resulted in relationships which are somewhat lower (i.e., attenuated) than in fact is the case.

Although there are a considerable number of studies which have analyzed career orientations, no career orientation studies could be found which included a set of variables similar to those examined in the present study. Similarly, few studies could be found which examined career orientations in different subgroups of women. Results in the present study suggest that there are significant differences between the two socioeconomic groups in the determinants of work satisfaction, professional attainment career orientations, occupational interests, and senior school attainment.

In comparing the group results it appears that certain early associations learnt in the home exerted a strong influence on individuals up to early adulthood and that this was particularly so for middle class women. For instance, political preferences (Associative Learning Experiences) held at age 21, and formed along social class lines, influence 1976 Career Orientations, with con- servative political leanings influencing a Career Orientation in women from middle-class backgrounds at age 21. Results were different in determining a career orientation in 1982. Krumboltz (1981) states that it is "the sequential cumulative effects of numerous learning experiences affected by various environmental circumstances and the individual's cognitive and emotional reactions to these learning experiences and circumstances" (p. 53) that cause a person to make vocationally important decisions or choose particular occupations. Thus, no one factor overrides others but a factor may have some- thing of an add-on effect over time. Certainly as far as some early associations are concerned, it seems that this might be the case with the influence of political orientations in the home.

Perhaps political attitudes reflect a general orientation to the world which may be represented by a cluster of attitudes, some of which may have more enduring characteristics over time. Thus, 1982 Career Orientation in women from both high- and low-social class backgrounds is determined by


left-wing political tendencies held at age 21, suggesting that more noncon- servative views at that age are relevant for long-term career commitment in women at the early career development s tage- in the current sample, at age 27 years. Theoretically, the cumulative effect of career involvement could also affect the development of future political orientations and one could find that career orientations are determined by different political orientations at the year 30 transition stage (Levinson, 1986). From the present study, it seems that political orientation may be a useful variable to include in future investigations of career orientations in women.

In keeping with the literature on the impact of social class on child rearing practices (Kohn, 1984; Spence & Helmreich, 1980), Exploratory Tenden- cies (Instrumental Learning Experiences-influencer) had effects on the School Attainment and Career orientation of middle-class women at age 21, with little influence on the attainment and orientations of women from working class backgrounds.

The most surprising results found in these analyses concern the large significant differences between the two social class groups as regards the benefit of College or University Attainment (Instrumental Learning Experiences- consequences). College/university achievement powerfully determines professional attainment in women from working-class, not middle- class backgrounds. A number of possibilities exist to explain this phenome- non. For example, contacts or other resources could be available to women from a middle-class background, who are thereby able to access professional attainment. Nevertheless, as in other career orientation studies (Astin & My- int, 1971), College and University Attainment is a stronger determinant of a career orientation at age 27 for middle-class women than for working-class women. This implies that qualifications (but not current job status) are in- fluential in determining career commitment and either that perhaps those middle-class women who obtain qualifications are in a more comfort- able position to make decisions which favor career over family commit- ments or that their career decidedness is more definite than that of women from working-class backgrounds.

Like other investigations examining the importance of family obligations on career (Astin, 1976; Stewart, 1980; Farmer, 1985), the present study found marital and parental status a negative influence on career orientation and the effects were equally negative regardless of class background. Thus, the constraints of family obligations were not lessened for women from middle-class backgrounds, say, in comparison to those from working-class backgrounds. Presumably economic factors are not responsible for the effects of family but may relate to other factors such as personal choice, role expectations and obligations, attitudes, and the like, unexamined in the present study.

The factors which determine career orientations and variations of them are important in understanding women's preferred work participation and


career development-and the controversial nature of "women's work" re- mains. For a number of reasons (cultural, economic, educational, and social), it has become more relevant in recent years whether women opt for a full-time uninterrupted career, whether they have a career at all, or whether a career takes second place to other priories. In this regard, predicting the economic impact of women's education and employemnt in the workforce has become of increasing interest to educationalists, politicians, employers, economists, and policy planners. Working along this line of thought and taking the view that traits underlying these orientations exist before women's marriage and childbearing years, Schwartz (1989) has very recently suggested that it should be possible to identify "career-primary" and "career-and- family" women early in their working life and, then, for companies to develop the talents and abilities of these women. Since few studies have examined these orientations using predictive models, it is far too early to say whether, in academic terms, such an approach could be successful. For instance, variables not previously considered (i.e., political tendencies) could be instrumental in determining how orientations can be identified.

However, it would seem that Krumboltz's theory has a place in this type of analysis since it not only takes in the context and environment within which such decisions are made, but also suggests how individual and other life circumstance factors can result in particular preferences and choices. The theory does point to the "whole" of a person's experience and the complex number of variables involved in career preferences. Thus, it highlights how simplistic suggestions of predicting and/or identifying career orientations can underestimate their multidimensional nature. Nevertheless, the theory does have limitations as regards the notion of development and in adapting theoretical concepts to a predictive model. For this reason, the hypothesized model in the present study was exploratory.

Findings in the present study regarding the importance of early-formed associations in the home, for example, political attitudes, the effects of socioeconomic status on orientations toward career, and class differences found in job satisfaction, need to be taken up and explored further in future studies of "career orientations." In addition, more refined predictive models need to be constructed so that theoretical frameworks can be developed which can assess the imporatnace of multiple determinants of career orientations, in women generally and in different subgroups of women.

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determining career orientations in women from different social-class backgrounds

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