Traditionality of College Major and Attitudes Towards Work-Family Balance: Vocational Correlates

Abstract

This article will present data on two studies investigating vocational correlates of attitudes towards work/family balance. The first study was designed to measure the relationship between attitude toward balancing work and family (Gilbert, Dancer, Rossman, & Thorn, 1991), and two variables: college major and vocational aspirations. Two hundred forty-nine women from six college majors participated in Study 1 (engineering, chemistry, communication, sociology, education, and nursing). The second study investigated whether women who are in a traditional college major (education, N = 39) are less congruent than those in a non- traditional major (engineering, N = 24) or a neutral field (communication, N = 9 and sociology, N = 7), and if they differ in their intentions to balance work and family. Results indicated that women in traditional majors were more likely to endorse traditional plans to combine work and family than gender-neutral majors, and had relatively lower levels of vocational aspiration and career commitment. Results also indicated no differences in level of congruence (Holland, 1992) across college majors, and that women in traditional majors who are congruent are more likely to endorse traditional orientation to combining work and family than noncongruent traditional college majors. Results indicate the need to incorporate intentions to balance work and family into career decisions for women.