Needed: A Valid Measure of Women's Career Aspirations

As part of a longitudinal study of women's and coeducational college graduates, women's career salience ratings and aspirations were compared. Participants were 1979 female graduates of 15 small, private, liberal arts colleges in the northeastern United States that had three selectivity levels: selective, very selective, and highly selective. A mailed questionnaire collected data on these variables: career salience, organizational level aspired to, innovativeness of career, and plans to pursue graduate education. One-way least squares analyses of variance indicated that more career salient women tend to plan for graduate education and enter less traditional careers but their aspirations on the organizational ladder are no higher than those of less career salient women. Results raised questions about women's career aspiration levels and women's roles and about measurement of women's aspirations. (YLB) ************************************** * t****************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS arc the best that can be made from the original document. AI