Predicting Women's Educational Aspirations: The Influences of School, Family, and Sex Role Attitude Variables

Abstract

What impact is the Women's Liberation Movement having on women high school students of today, as they face important choices of career, marriage, and higher education? This research seeks to investigate the effects of sex role related attitudes,1 as well as family and school variables, on the aspirations of young women for higher education. In investigating the topic, an effort is made to explore a variety of specific sex role attitudes: respondent's assessment of the current status of women; opinions about such policy matters as the Equal Rights Amend ment, day care, and abortion; patterns of friendship with both sexes; sub jective importance of marriage, occupation, and parenthood; and future role choices such as importance of equal parent responsibility for childrearing. Family variables examined include the education and oc cupation of both parents, plus further information of the prestige, con tinuity, and satisfaction of employment for the mother, and parental pres sure for academic achievement and for marriage. The investigation is car ried out in two educational milieus constituting the school variables: a coeducational high school and an all-women's day school.