Judgements of career success, relative amount of child-rearing and full-time employment involvement, and attitudes toward women : an exploratory study

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore (1) women’s judgments of career success, (2) the relative amount of child-rearing and full-time employment involvement women expect, and women prefer, for the future, (3) women’s attitudes towards the societal rights and roles of women, and (4) the relationship of the three to each other. One hundred and eleven female students (1) assessed the success of hypothetical females who differed in professional status, occupations and familial status, (2) chose from among 13 situations of relative amounts of child-rearing and full-time employment involvement the one they expected, and independently the one they preferred for their future, (3) completed a short form of the Attitudes Towards Women Scale (AWS; Spence, Helmreich, & Strapp, 1973), and (4) indicated their work orientation and demographic information. In general, the participants were career-oriented and held relatively nontraditional attitudes toward women. Women of high professional status were judged to be currently more successful, which was more deserved than women of lower professional status. Success at the high status was judged to be more personally satisfying to the participants. Women in a traditional occupation who did not have a family were judged to rate themselves as more successful than those who did. For their first expectation, and for their first preference more career-oriented women than expected chose to interrupt full-time employment before young children start school. Career-oriented women more frequently expressed an expectation and more frequently expressed a preference for more full-time employment involvement than job-oriented women. There was no relationship between (1) attitudes toward women and career success, (2) attitudes and relative amount of full-time employment involvement or (3) relative amount of full-time employment involvement expressed as a first expectation and success. However, university women who expressed a preference for relatively more full-time employment involvement did judge the target female to be currently more successful.