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Title: Impact of Availability of Child Care Arrangements on the Career Paths and Eventual Job Satisfaction of Women in Vocational Education
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Steczak, Cheryl
Impact of Availability of Child Care Arrangements on the Career Paths and Eventual Job Satisfaction of Women in Vocational Education
Ph.D. Dissertation, Purdue University, 1980
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Career Patterns; Child Care; Mothers; Occupational Choice; Occupations; Self-Perception; Vocational Education; Vocational Guidance

Vocational development theorists have suggested that occupational choice is a means by which a woman implements her self-concept; occupational choice influences one's total life adjustment and serves a key function in the evolution of one's career. When the employed woman is also a mother, however, another dimension impacts upon her career development with implications for her occupational and vocational choices. Because of the responsibilities of child-rearing, the employed mother's choices are limited and her career path is often less stable and less predictable than the woman who does not have children. As a result, employed mothers represent a segment of the labor force which faces unique and compelling problems and whose skills and resources are either underutilized or neglected. The present study utilized data from the NLS, which followed the movement of 4,531 women (1,978 employed women without children, 1,952 employed mothers with preferred child care, and 601 employed mothers without preferred child care) from adolescence and into adulthood. This research utilized only those women from the sample who were employed in 1975. The career patterns of employed mothers and employed women without children were found to be very different. The employed mother has a career path that is less stable than the employed woman without children. She is more likely to be employed in non-professional and non-managerial occupations and less likely to be able to participate in occupational opportunities which would prepare her for occupations with higher levels of income, benefits, and personal satisfaction. The results of this study appear to indicate that the employed mother or future employed mother needs not only vocational guidance, but also realistic career information.
Bibliography Citation
Steczak, Cheryl. Impact of Availability of Child Care Arrangements on the Career Paths and Eventual Job Satisfaction of Women in Vocational Education. Ph.D. Dissertation, Purdue University, 1980.