Factors of achievement and femininity as predictors of career commitment in college senior women
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Abstract
According to Erik Erikson, emphasis on identity formation for young women centers on femininity concerns.
Robert White also emphasized competence, especially in work.
These two goals may be conflicting for young women as they
finish college and plan for career or marriage or both.
This study is an attempt to relate some achievement and
femininity factors to career commitment and to one another.
Ninety-eight college senior women from a highly
selective women's college were measured on seven predictor
variables and the criterion variable, career commitment.
The following major hypotheses were supported:
there is a significant, positive relationship between career commitment and sense of competence in work situations,
achievement need, and perceived approval of significant
males for career plans; there is a significant, negative
relationship between career commitment and identification
with a feminine stereotype and fear of success. An hypothesized
positive relationship between career commitment and
non-traditional career choice was not supported. Also not
supported was a prediction that the relationship between
career commitment and perceived success informing romantic
male/female relationships would vary as a function of life
style choice.
Secondary hypotheses that were supported were predictions
that identification with a feminine stereotype is significantly
and negatively related to non-traditional career
choice, achievement need and approval of significant males;
achievement need is significantly and positively related to
non-traditional career choice and sense of competence.
In addition to the simple correlational analyses,
a multiple regression equation was computed in order to rank
the variables in predicting career commitment. The first
three variables to enter were sense of competence, fear of
success and feminine stereotype. Achievement need also had a relatively strong relationship with career commitment,
but did not enter early because it shared variance with more
strongly related variables.
A posteriori analyses were done after major hypotheses
had been tested. Some questionnaire data, in combination with
the original variables, were included in a supplementary multiple
regression equation. Sense of competence was still
the best predictor of career commitment. However, whether
or not mother worked while subject was growing up entered as
the second step. Other variables which, in combination with
earlier entries, significantly predicted career commitment
were summer work experience, mother's attitude toward women
with young children having careers, socio-economic status
and approval by others (both sexes). Fear of success and
feminine stereotype were still important, but less so than
in the original multiple regression.
In another supplementary analysis, Chi squares showed
that there was a significant relationship between career commitment
and mother's work patterns, time when subjects plan
to marry, part-time work experience and father's approval
of women--even those with small children--having careers.
A supplementary discriminant analysis, using original variables but changing the criterion, indicated that achievement
need, approval of significant males and feminine stereotyle
were the best combination of predictors of traditional
or non-traditional career choice.
This study supports the findings that achievement
need and approval of significant males were positively related
to career commitmen.t; it supports the theories that
feminine stereotype and fear of success should be negatively,
and sense of competence, positively, related to career commitment.
Contrary to other's findings, non-traditional
career choice was not found to be related to career commitment.
However, it was related to achievement need.
A limitation of this study is that, although many of
the correlations were significant, all of them were relatively
low. Also, the study was not cross-validated, and the population
to which one might generalize is relatively restricted.
Further study is suggested for sense of competence,
perceived success in forming romantic male/female relationships,
mother's work patterns and mother's and father's
attitudes about women working.
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This work is being made available in OpenBU by permission of its author, and is available for research purposes only. All rights are reserved to the author.