Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - 02080007
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED159456 AUTHOR: Gottfredson, Linda S.
TITLE: Race and Sex Differences in Occupational
Aspirations: Their Development and Consequences for
Occupational Segregation.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1978
NOTE: 51 p.
ABSTRACT: A study was conducted to examine race and sex
differences in occupational aspirations and the role of
these differences in perpetuating under- or
overrepresentation of women and blacks in different
occupations. The underrepresentation of women, especially
blacks, in all levels of entrepreneurial jobs was stressed
since these jobs constitute a large proportion of all jobs
and pay better for less education than other fields. Data
from the National Assessment of Educational Progress
regarding occupational aspirations, values, and self
reported competencies of thirteen-year-olds, seventeen-year
olds, and adults aged twenty-six to thirty-five were used
to examine race and sex differences in orientation to
particular types of occupations. Based on these results,
speculations were presented about how people adjust their
occupational goals in ways that help perpetuate
occupational segregation. The following five principles
were formulated:
(1) society-wide stereotypes about good jobs are mirrored
in the occupational aspirations of children; (2)
stereotypes about occupations appropriate for men are
different from those for women; (3) these stereotypes are
largely the same for all racial and ethnic groups; (4) as
children go through adolescence their aspirations become
more realistic; (5) and the races and sexes adjust their
aspirations towards different sets of occupations. The data
implied that strategies to decrease occupational
segregation by decreasing educational handicaps will not
eradicate all important differences and recommended that
more attention be devoted to understanding the
socialization processes that lead the races and sexes to
seek different jobs. (Author/BM)
Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this
document: Results (Secondary Analyses).
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Business-; Career-Choice; Elementary
Secondary-Education; Labor-Market; National-Surveys;
Postsecondary-Education; Racial-Balance; Self-Evaluation;
Sex-Role; Socialization-; Stereotypes-; Values-
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Affirmative-Action; *Blacks-; *Females-;
*Occupational-Aspiration; *Racial-Differences; *Sex
Differences
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