Student Number: 12008987
University of West of England
28th April 2014
Sociological Research and Investigation module

A quantitative research: Is there a relationship between career aspiration of male and female students and their attitude towards role of the women?

Tutor: Graham Taylor

Contents

Abstract 3
Introduction and Literature Review 3
Methodology 5
Results 7
Discussion and Conclusion 8
References 11
Appendices 13-28

Abstract
The purpose of this study was to find the relationship between the career Aspiration and attitude towards the role of women and to assess how this is linked to gender. A sample of 30 undergraduate students were administered the self-completion questionnaires. I used methods of analysis including Mann-Whitney U tests, chi-squared test and Spearman rank order correlation coefficient to find correlations in the data.
The main hypothesis of this study stated that there is a significant link between career aspiration and Attitude toward the roles of women in society. The result supported the hypothesis and a moderate correlation was found between career aspiration and attitudes toward the roles of women held by the students. The study also found no significant difference in attitude towards the roles of women between males and females, the result revealed there to be a significant difference in the level of Career aspiration between males and females, there was no significant association between gender and the level of job they aspired for, and finally, males still chose masculine career field and females chose feminine career field. It was concluded that the level of career aspiration among the males and females and level of liberal attitude were linked. However, it was also concluded that gender is linked to career aspiration but not the level of attitudes towards the role of women.
Introduction and Literature Review
Today’s society has changed vastly, however despite these structural changes men and women are opting for the same stereotypical careers. Career aspirations represent an individual’s orientation toward a desired career goal under ideal conditions (Domenico, 2006).The mere perception of appropriate roles for men and women can affect career choice.
Stereotypes are believed to have an effect on career choice when career preferences of men and women are compared and there appears to be a larger barrier for females than males. Even when females have broadened their career preferences, yet their expectations for career attainment has remained low, especially for high status, traditionally male jobs (Wahl & Blackhurst, 2000). Empirical studies on gender stereotypes have consistently discovered that people believe that typical traits and behaviours of men and women differ. Eagly believes that gender roles are socially constructed (1987, cited in Haley, 2006, p.4) There are however, numerous factors that can change the sex-role attitudes, having a college education is one of the factors that can increase the non-traditional sex-role attitudes of students, ‘both male and female students’ levels of traditionalism declined during college’ (Haley, 2006, p.3)
Eccles describes (1987) how the difference in career choice can be affected by beliefs about gender. Gender socialisation of personal and professional values can lead to both males and females into following different social roles which in turn further reinforces the gender role perception. Research into the occupational aspiration has shown that gender role stereotyping have great influence their career choice. Francis found that creative choices (stereotypically feminine job) were far the most popular choice among girls followed by caring jobs, technical and business. She also found that despite the increased diversity of choice and greater aspiration on the part of girls regarding their future occupations few girls are opting for ‘masculine’ jobs (Francis, 2002).
Some literatures have attempted to give