Women's Career Aspirations and Achievements

Abstract

This report describes the educational, occupational, and familial behavior a panel of sixty-four women exhibited during the first seven yearsfollowing their college gradua tion. Their career patterns are compared with the aspirations they held as seniors in college. The findings reveal high consistency between senior aspirations and actual behavior on some items, e.g., mariage and graduate school, but less consistency on others, including occupational choice. Generally the women worked more often and had children less frequently than they had anticipated. The actual life style patterns of these women and their aspirations for the future result from the fact that women pursue a contingency strategy in organizing their adult lives.