TRADITIONALITY AND THE DISCRIMINATING EFFECT OF EXPECTATIONS OF OCCUPATIONAL SUCCESS AND OCCUPATIONAL VALUES FOR WOMEN WITHIN MATH-ORIENTEDFIELDS

Success expectations and vocational values have been identified as imp ortant features of women's career pursuits. Also, examination of diffe rences among women pursuing traditionally and nontraditionally open fi elds has proven illuminating. Nonetheless, the women compared in such studies often pursued fields requiring vastly different competencies, interests, and training. This study investigated possible differences between women majoring in math-oriented fields in a traditionally clos ed area, engineering, and those in a traditionally open area, math edu cation, with respect to success expectations in such fields and to the importance of various vocational outcomes. Success expectations for t raditional and nontraditional occupations distinguished between the tw o groups, as did values for a number of vocational outcomes. Ln unders tanding women's career choices, the findings support the role of succe ss expectations, the little studied role of outcome desirability, and the value of examining within-group occupational orientations within f ields differing in traditionality but requiring similar skills, traini ng, and interests. (C) 1997 Academic Press.