Talent Ignored,Talent Diverted: The Cultural Context Underlying Giftedness in Females

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study of 67 gifted females enrolled in graduate programs in education at a large state university. These women completed a questionnaire about various aspects of their lives including their education and family life; parental encouragement; career, personal, and professional achievements; and the effects of marriage and children on their lives. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 25 of the women. Results indicate that the majority of these gifted females believe that their parents encouraged them to go to college but not to pursue a specific career, and many were unsure about whether they had selected the right career. Almost half of the women indicated that barriers existed to their own talent development because of their marriage and personal lives. Many of the women in this study were unsure about whether they were satished with their lives because of their continuing attempts to pursue their own talents while maintaining their personal lives. The majority of the women in this study had extremely limited time to pursue their own talents. The study summarizes some of the continuing dilemmas facing gifted females, and in particular, explores some of the issues confronting gifted females who pursue careers, even those generally considered traditional for women.

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