Achievement Motivation and Values: An Alternative Perspective

Abstract

Unequal participation of the sexes in the domain of employment has become increasingly difficult to ignore. Although increasing numbers of women are working, these women are still concentrated in the lower levels of the professional hierarchy in spite of attempts in recent years to decrease discrimination in hiring and salaries of women. For example, the percentage of women in professional and technical occupations has increased from 39% in 1968 to only 42% in 1976 while during the same time period the percentage of women clerical workers increased from 73% to 80%. It is interesting to note in 1970, when women occupied 40% of the professional and technical positions, more than 62% of these women were nurses, physical therapists, dieticians and elementary and secondary school teachers. In comparison, only 12.6% of men occupied these “female” professional occupations (Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, 1973). Even within the professional domain, women cluster in the lower realm of the status hierarchy. The underemployment of women implied by these figures is widespread.