A Longitudinal Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action to Women's Career Behavior¹

Abstract

Based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), we hypothesized that young women's career intentions would be predicted by their genderrole attitudes and perceptions of their boyfriends' and parents' career-related preferences for them. Career intention was expected to predict future career behavior. The model was tested using longitudinal data from 105 women studied in 1973 and followed up 14 years later in 1987. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results supported the TRA: women's gender-role attitudes and their perceptions of important others' preferences predicted their career intentions, which predicted career behavior 14 years later. Implications for the study of women's careers and the longitudinal application of the TRA are discussed.In the 1970s and early 1980s, researchers began to examine the nature of women's career development. Traditional societal norms had dictated an emphasis on marriage and child rearing for young women, but new changes in social attitudes broadened women's role options. Researchers began to find enormous variability in young women's career motivation (Almquist & Angrist, 197 1). Why, researchers asked, were some young women more strongly motivated to pursue a career than were others? Why were some young women less interested in a career and more interested in getting married and raising children?Career orientation has often been defined as the centrality of a career in a person's life (Illfelder, 1980) or as the importance a person attaches to a career, 'This study was submitted by the senior author in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of

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