Gender Differences in the Career Aspirations of Recent Cohorts of High School Seniors

Abstract

The career aspirations of three cohorts of high school seniors are examined for evidence of changing patterns of sex role socialization. Several important changes occur in the distribution of male and female choices, most of which serve to reduce the overall level of gender dissimilarity. A multivariate analysis of aspirations for high status professional jobs highlights the importance of gender in the choice of career goals. The direct effects of gender are larger than those of the other independent variables (SES, class quartile, residential location and cohort), all of which interact with gender in their relationship to aspirations. In the largest of these interactions the relationship of gender to aspirations weakens across cohorts, suggesting an important change in the acceptance of occupational sex roles by high school seniors.