Career Orientations in Women from Rural and Urban Backgrounds

Abstract

This study examines career orientations in women from rural and urban backgrounds, using a longitudinal data set collected over a period of 10 years, from 1973-1982. When first contacted, respondents were 18 years of age. The final data collection in 1982 resulted in a sample of some 1300 women. The longitudinal data was analyzed using LISREL structural equation modeling and was guided by a theoretical framework developed by Krumboltz (1981), which focuses on the process of decision-making. 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 and identifies 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. Results from the study found that there were some differences between women of contrasting geographic background over the secondary school-early career development stage. Noticeably larger differences occurred in values found for rural women in the effect of external constraints on early work satisfaction, the stability of work satisfaction, the effect of work satisfaction on occupational interest and the effect of parental status on career orientation