18 Page Sociology Paper Topic: Gender Discrimination Against Women In The Workplace

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Working-Class Women: Occupational Realism and Occupational Choice: Beliefs and Knowledge of Working-Class Women at First Workforce Entrance Paap, Kirsten E.American Sociological Association, (0, 1995).

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Addressing the question of why women choose to work in female (F)-dominated fields despite

documentation of lesser pay than roughly equivalent male-dominated fields, analyzed are responses of 41

working class Fs to interviews on occupational beliefs & attitudes conducted prior to high school graduation

& at first full-time workforce entrance. The attitudes measured include reflected appraisals of occupations,

job preferences & nonpreferences, & perceptions of annual wages & costs of living. Results indicate that

respondents (Rs) perceive both significant social rules surrounding the gender of job occupants & credible

social sanctions facing those who violate occupational gender rules. These perceptions can be interpreted

as offering an alternative to the structural & work-values hypotheses of occupational selection. This thesis

also indicates that Rs did not have an accurate knowledge of wages of occupations or cost of living. This

lack of information & information use poses a serious challenge to the work-values assumption that young

women make free & informed choices about their future occupations. Also discussed is the role of

attribution theory in explaining how young women & social scientists may construct the process of

occupational choice. It is argued that the ideology of free & informed choice tends to be reified by both the

resopndent & the researcher, creating biases in both theory & data.

Less

Females;

Working Women ;

Working Class;

Work Attitudes;

Work Orientations;

Occupational Choice;

Young Adults

2983: social differentiation; sociology of occupations & professions

Sociological Abstracts

4/20/2021 Working-Class Women: Occupational Realism and Occupational Choice: Beliefs and Knowledge of Working-Class Women at First Workforce Entrance…

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1020: feminist/gender studies; sociology of gender & gender relations

first job choice, working class women ; social constraints, wage/cost-of-

living information; interviews

American Sociological Association, 1995

Working-Class Women : Occupational Realism and Occupational Choice:

Beliefs and Knowledge of Working-Class Women at First Workforce

Entrance

American Sociological Association

Paap, Kirsten E

 U Wisconsin, Madison 53704 Tel: 608-242-0813  [email protected]

Paap, Kirsten E 

[email protected]

American Sociological Association

1995

Conference Papers & Proceedings

English

Conference Paper

1995

2012-05-01

95S31677

61720560

http://0-proquest.com.sultan.tnstate.edu/conference-papers-

proceedings/working-class-women-occupational-realism-

choice/docview/61720560/se-2?accountid=14275

2016-09-28

Sociological Abstracts

 1 

1 

Tennessee Electronic Library

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