Career or marriage?: Some observations and data from young black students in South Africa

A study is reported which explores encouragements and discouragements for a chievement-related behaviors in samples of 200 young black female students in tertiary institutions (100 career vs. 100 traditional women). A number o f significant findings and nonsignificant trends combined to suggest that f or women the perception of greater encouragement from significant others in the immediate environment is necessary to compensate for the sex role expe ctation of nonachievement, and that women who set high goals believe they a re acting in accord with significant others. This is in support of Stake an d associates' hypotheses (Stake, 1979; Stake & Levitz, 1979). The combinati on of an interview and self-report methodologies appeared to be useful in g aining better understanding of implications of occupational choice in young women. The possibility that a finer grained multivariate analysis of the f actors affecting occupational choice and expectations is something that nee ds to be taken seriously in future research, however.