Monday, October 19th, 2009

Time	Event
10:13a	Career Planning among Women A dearth of career planning among women has been alternately attributed to nature and nurture. On the one hand, psychological traits assumed to be characteristic of females--for example, passivity and a primary concern with interpersonal connection--have allegedly stood in the way of the assertive, instrumental, apersonal behavior needed for the setting of a career strategy. On the other hand, sex role socialization has been called to task as responsible for women's lack of career preparation. Unambiguous examples of that socialization were seen above in the gender-directed advice given by 1960s high school guidance counselors. Even now, with an ever-increasing majority of women, married or single, working, females continue to be seen as having a choice about work that men do not have. It is not difficult to Edit my essay with the help of qualified paper editors! Make your essay the best! If this is the case, an ambivalence could interfere with both the individual woman's career planning and corporate acceptance of women as a permanent part of the professional picture. Women have been more work-oriented than traditional ideology has allowed. Even prior to the current women's movement, some were determined to enter the male-dominated business world. In the 1960s few mechanisms were in place to prepare women for business careers. Graduating from high school in the late sixties, Marie saw opportunity in business, particularly for women, and she pursued relevant academic preparation. With a liberal arts background and a somewhat more specialized, but not business, graduate degree. The psychological development of these women does not conform to the social influences of their time. Ideology rarely subsumes everyone, and individual variation in relief can anticipate more collective change. Prior to large-scale change, however, the structures and practices that would teach women about career were absent. That they could even have business aspirations at that time belies female passivity regardless of their ability to take the next step of planning. Women's thinking about business careers was truncated not by their unsui natures but rather by the absence of societal guideposts for females to take such a path. If the question is to work or not to work, it is clear now that women can anticipate spending much of their adult lives employed. Perhaps they have less of a choice about work than they do about career. It makes sense, however, that if women must plan to be self-supporting, a career, as opposed to a job, would be the preferred route. Although the women interviewed may have been tentative in their initial employment explorations, they developed the ambition that transforms a job into a career relatively quickly. (Comment on this)
10:14a	Job versus Career Though the distinctions between job and career are several, central to them is a significantly different way of thinking about and approaching work. Given that many of these women did not anticipate working for the long haul, it is not surprising to find them stumbling into jobs without considering careers. If you are looking for custom written essay papers, get original custom paper writing service online! Although an intrinsically female passivity might account for the absence of planning, it is just as likely that social context could prevent or promote an instrumental work orientation. Thirty-five-year-old woman attributes her psychological transition from job to career to the context of her employment. In addition, her coming of age in the early seventies was surrounded by a societal shift in consciousness about women's life paths. Knowing that one is pursuing a career seems requisite to planning its course. There are many reasons why these women were not imbued with a sense of career planning. Some did not expect to work, never mind have a career. For many, entry in business was almost a random event. Early work in social service or other nonprofit organizations may have led to a business choice in contrast. A woman's employment path might also be shaped by other circumstances in her life. One woman, for example, found jobs where her husband's work took them. As long as her work was secondary to his and her jobs transient, she could not entertain career prospects. Only when able to settle into a position could she perceive career possibilities. The psychological shift in her perception comes in the context of opportunity offered by a s, continuing position. It is not that females eschew career planning; it just comes as a surprise to them. The life path of many of these women took an unexpected turn for which no preparation was provided. An altered societal context that allowed women more career opportunity was still not structured for their direction; both the individuals and the institutions lack provision. Untutored and inexperienced, women grope for a map that has yet to be drawn and that they must then learn how to read. Devoid of clues, this woman's search bespeaks not psychological antipathy to career strategy but rather the tabula rasa that both she and the organization face. Even when business was a first and uninterrupted toehold, few interviewees had formal training preceding employment. research paper writing services - purchase customized research paper draft from scratch by professional writers! Instruction in the form and content of business is likely to include strategies for analyzing and planning the development of a career. Technical expertise represents, therefore, only partial preparation for corporate employment. Knowing how to plan and implement a career path may be equally important. Women who lack such knowledge sometimes assume that men do not. Although females' shortcomings in mapping career strategy have been amply described, there is little documentation that most men naturally do this and are effective at it, as commonly assumed. (Comment on this)
10:15a	The Development of Career In the absence of active and conscious planning, how do the women interviewed develop careers? Several of them describe a path that evolved through experience. Their successful performance at a particular job gave them access to other jobs and functions wherein they repeatedly proved their capabilities to themselves and to others. custom written essay papers of sufficient quality is rare. Order original service, essay and paper writing, at this site! Increased opportunities followed successful experience. Based on what she has found useful, a thirty-one-year-old sales representative for a large, diversified corporation, advises other women: The key is to get into the organization. And then do a good job. Learn as much as you can. . . . Go in with an open mind. Be selective in the information that you give out. Sell yourself. And get that first job and then work like crazy. Do the best you can. Then, from there, select what you want from within that company. If you've already demonstrated that you're good and you have a track record, you are going to get that opportunity. Woman’s advice is reminiscent of woman: I believe that if an opportunity comes along you take it, take your chances. Otherwise, you get stagnant. These remarks, which come from women who worked their way up from secretarial beginnings, represent a mixture of messages. On the one hand, women appear to be passive with regard to opportunity, taking it if and when it comes along. On the other, they also talk of making and choosing chances, putting themselves forward and taking risks. Given the history of female exclusion from the corporate world, an incontrovertible first step is, as Bonnie suggests, securing a toehold in the organization. Beginning with a gender-linked uncertainty about their position that transcends ordinary newcomer status, women must ascertain standing before plotting strategy. They do this by proving themselves through diligent and consistent achievement. Initially, the amount of energy devoted to proving themselves precludes simultaneous strategizing. In lieu of advance decision making, the pattern of women's experiences maps their careers. It is possible that these women's abilities were impressive enough to preclude their having to plan deliberate directions. Immersed in work and moving rapidly from one position to another, they view their paths in retrospect, and then their careers seem to have happened almost without their deliberation. Professional written term paper are ready to help you with essay writing; qualitative services! These observations speak to more than women's lack of career planning. They could describe what psychologists have called an external locus of control, a tendency to attribute successes to factors external to oneself and to assume the blame for failures. An external locus of control had been found to be disproportionately distributed among women and minorities, although this is less so when the status and, therefore, the power of these groups are enhanced. (Comment on this)
10:15a	Taking the Reins of a Career Not always forethoughtful about their career direction, women later become aware of influences that have moved them one way or another. While the work itself is engrossing, an awareness of its meaning in relation to organizational structure gradually unfolds. Women who are untutored in the plotting of a career are also unaccustomed to the informal communication that can shape direction and opportunity. At first, others in the organization might be doing the engineering for them. Women whose careers were unanticipated began with a focus on the work itself and later attended to corporate climate and structure. In retrospective reflection they realize that forces aside from their performance propelled them on their paths without their full awareness. Other woman observations about covert planning by others are echoed by Rebecca, a contemporary whose technical training prepared her for a more straight-line path to her current position as systems supervisor in transportation. Content with her direction to date, woman wants to become more actively instrumental in her career path. Women are still in the process of discovery. The first discovery is that they can work effectively in the corporate world. Once the newness of professional employment in business has worn off and they are established in relation to the job itself, they learn that they are entitled to plan a career path that stretches beyond the task at hand. Making this cognitive leap takes time and experience, which includes interaction with others who prompt and stimulate it. Some women, for example, are encouraged to enter a dialogue with a superior, exploring possibilities for career direction. At forty-three, woman recognizes that both her frustration and selfblame reflect a female stereotyping by society that became a part of her. research writing services - buy original research paper prepared from scratch by trusted writers! Her superior's help strikes a disingenuous chord because exposure to choices is insufficient as long as she lacks information about them, about the larger organizational structure, and, more importantly, about herself in relation to them. The choices are foreign to her; they can become meaningful when she is able to see some degree of fit between what they offer and the person she has become. Woman, like other accidental careerists, is in the process of revised selfperception simultaneous to her negotiation of a career. Social ideology about women has been dramatically altered in the course of her development, and she finds herself with one foot in each camp. Though her behavior is in line with the new female image, her attitudes about self and life direction lag behind. (Comment on this)

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