Chapter 6
Education and Achievement
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Women’s Educational Values,
Attainments, and Campus Experiences
Educational goals
Across ethnicities, adolescent girls have higher educational
and occupational goals than boys
Middle-class boys plan to go to college; most working-class
boys do not
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Women’s Educational Values,
Attainments, and Campus Experiences
Educational attainments
Dramatic changes for women since 1985
Women now obtain majority of associate’s, bachelor’s,
master’s and doctoral degrees
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Women’s Educational Values,
Attainments, and Campus Experiences
Campus climate
“Chilly climate” – faculty members display different
expectations for women students, or single them out or
ignore them
Biased treatment of women students
Biased coverage of course material
Microaggressions
Effects of chilly climate on women students and faculty
members
Reflection of gender inequality of power
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Women’s Educational Values,
Attainments, and Campus Experiences
Campus climate
The academic environment for women of color
Primarily White campuses experienced as unwelcoming
and unsupportive
Stereotype threat
Individualist values of college may conflict with collectivist
values of culture
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Women’s Educational Values,
Attainments, and Campus Experiences
Campus climate
The academic environment for working-class and poor
women
Feel they have to hide their backgrounds
Intellectual disadvantage
Challenges for women on welfare
Higher education important route to higher income
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Women’s Educational Values,
Attainments, and Campus Experiences
Campus climate
Single-sex institutions
More leadership opportunities, expectations, and role
models
Women participate more in class, collaborate more, report
higher levels of support
Increased self-confidence, less sexism
Women more likely to pursue male-dominated fields and
earn higher salaries
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Women’s Work-Related Goals
Career aspirations
Differences among women
Differences between women and men
No differences in prestige of aspirations or motivation to
succeed
In high school and college, women lower aspirations,
major in less prestigious fields, end up in lower-level
careers
Women more likely to major in “people-focused” areas
Women less likely to pursue computer and physical
sciences, engineering
Differential encouragement
Stereotypes
Lack of role models
Discrimination
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Women’s Work-Related Goals
Career counseling
Remains gender biased
Girls discouraged from advanced math or science
Bias in vocational interest inventories and aptitude testing
What can career counselors do?
Advocate for family-friendly work policies
Locate mentors
Encourage partners to participate in housework
Help develop effective coping strategies
Help obtain education and training
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Women’s Work-Related Goals
Work-family expectations
Most women currently want career, marriage, and
motherhood
White women want to interrupt careers when they
become mothers
Black women want to discontinue employment for shorter
time than White women
White women more likely to believe that maternal
employment harmful to young children
College-educated Black women have stronger work
orientation than college-educated White women
Challenges for educated women of color in finding
educated man of color as mate
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Women’s Work-Related Goals
Work-family outcomes
Do women’s work-family aspirations match their actual
outcomes?
Hoffnung’s (2004) longitudinal survey
Career remains major focus throughout 20s
Not quite half of women had married
Most had not started a family
Those who were mothers had fewer advanced
degrees, lower status careers
Women of color less likely to be married than White
women
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Women’s Work-Related Goals
Salary expectations
Women expect lower salaries than men
Why?
Women base their expectations on known salary
discrepancies
Women lower expectations because they expect to
accommodate to fulfill family obligations
Women underestimate their worth
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Influences on Women’s Achievement
Level and Career Decisions
Orientation to achievement
Achievement motivation
Fear of success
Achievement attributions
Self-serving attributional bias
Achievement self-confidence
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Influences on Women’s Achievement
Level and Career Decisions
Personal characteristics
Women who pick male-dominated careers more competitive,
autonomous, and instrumental than those who pick femaledominated careers
Self-efficacy
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Influences on Women’s Achievement
Level and Career Decisions
Sexual orientation
Awareness of sexual identity can influence career
development
Coming out: may lose family support related to careerselection process
Perception of occupational climate
Lesbians less traditional in gendered attitudes about
occupations
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Influences on Women’s Achievement
Level and Career Decisions
Social and cultural factors
Support from parents
Cultural values
Black women
Professional attainment is family, not only individual,
goal
Sense of obligation to family
Concern for communities
Conflicts between family/cultural values and values
oriented toward career attainment
Values associated with social class position
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Influences on Women’s Achievement
Level and Career Decisions
Job-related characteristics
Men somewhat more likely to value material success,
promotions, challenge, power, etc.
Women somewhat more likely to value interpersonal
relationships, helping others, balancing professional and
personal goals
Mothers place greater emphasis on flexible hours and ease of
commute
Recent increase in value women place on job security, power,
prestige, accomplishment, etc.
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