The role of sexual orientation in women's career choice: A covariance structure analysis
Ormerod, Alayne J.
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/19446
Description
Title
The role of sexual orientation in women's career choice: A covariance structure analysis
Author(s)
Ormerod, Alayne J.
Issue Date
1996
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Fitzgerald, Louise F.
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Psychology, Social
Women's Studies
Education, Guidance and Counseling
Language
eng
Abstract
Women's career choices have historically been influenced by factors recognized as more complex than those that affect men. Some of these factors are: parenting; career orientation; holding profeminist values; and agentic personality characteristics.
The current investigation adds to the knowledge of women's career choice by examining and extending a causal model of vocational choice to include women of both heterosexual and lesbian orientation. Two alternative models were specified and tested sequentially utilizing causal modeling methodology. The first, a general model, was tested on a sample of 199 career-decided heterosexual students attending a large midwestern university and a national sample of 262 career-decided self-identified lesbian students. A second, enhanced model, was tested on the sample of lesbians and contains an additional latent variable unique to that group.
In the general model it was hypothesized that four independent variables, family orientation, agentic characteristics, ability, and feminist orientation would predict the dependent variable, career orientation; that career orientation, agentic characteristics, and ability would predict the dependent variable, career choice. The enhanced model contained the same constructs and assumptions with the addition of a variable, lesbian orientation, that was hypothesized to predict career orientation and choice.
Following various theoretically defensive modifications, three final models were accepted as the most plausible given the sample data. Family orientation and feminist orientation were not found to influence career orientation in any of the models and lesbian orientation was not of influence in the enhanced model. In the general model for the heterosexual women, career choice was predicted directly by career orientation and ability and indirectly by agentic characteristics; career orientation was predicted directly by agentic characteristics. In the general model for the lesbian women, agentic characteristics predicted career orientation directly and ability predicted career choice directly. Findings were similar for the enhanced model when tested with the lesbian sample.
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