CAREER COMMITMENTS OF AMERICAN WOMEN: The Issue of Side Bets

Abstract

The side bets of career commitment in the form of education, occupational preparation, employer selection, full‐time involvement, role‐conflict avoidance, incorporation of the career into the self‐concept and the building of a relatively congruent construction of reality are examined for a sample of metropolitan women aged 25 to 54. The most committed select a specific occupation, obtain appropriate education and job training and organize their role cluster, generalized self and construction of reality around being career women or at least paid workers. It is possible, however, that some of these side bets are very difficult to establish in the conservative climate of current America. Copyright © 1993, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved