ABSTRACT
Since the early 1970s in the United States, the percentage of female college students has risen dramatically to more than half of the college student population (National Center for Educational Statistics 1991). When contemporary women enter college, virtually all of them say that they plan to prepare for a career during college and to pursue it upon graduation. During their college years, women choose majors in a wide range of fields. They expect that their course experiences in the major will prepare them for good jobs in the work force. They make good grades, and they graduate more quickly and in higher numbers than men (Adel-man 1991). Yet, many contemporary college women continue to make career decisions and choices that lead them into traditionally female roles in the work force. Since the 1970s, there have been only minor changes in the sex segregation of college majors (Meece and Eccles 1993). Overwhelmingly, women still choose to major in the humanities, education, library science, or foreign languages. Although women select college courses of study in science, mathematics, and engineering in larger numbers than ever before, women are concentrated in social sciences, biological sciences, and psychology. Further, regardless of college major, many college women do not pursue a career of their own, at least not without interruption, after graduation (Holland and Eisenhart 1990). Most of these women work outside the home, but they do so in lower-paying, traditionally female jobs, often with little or no prospect of advancement (Okin 1989). Once in the work force, women are dramatically underrepresented in high status, high-paying occupations, particularly those that require expertise in mathematics or science (National Science Foundation 1990). Within occupational category, women earn salaries consistently below men's. Something is happening to women as they attempt to translate their successful educational experiences in college into occupational success. Something is happening to women as they try to achieve the careers they plan in college.
