Integrating Commonality and Difference: The Key to Career Counseling With Lesbian Women and Gay Men

Abstract

Miller -Tiedeman (1987) coined the term lifecareer to underscore the interrelatedness of life and career, that planning for career must flow from the total life experience of the individual. Nowhere is such a concept more important than in doing career work with clients who are part of a social or cultural group that faces oppression within the larger society. In addition to the myriad of factors seen in any client, the life context of oppressed peoples includes factors related to their specific culture and their experience of societal oppression. A mentor of the first author often spoke about working with individuals in socially oppressed cultural groups as a process of flowing back and forth between recognizing and appreciating the similarities or common humanity of the individual and recognizing and appreciating the differences or uniqueness of the client's particular culture and social oppression. Just as in cases where the client is from a another culture (Halstead, 1991), the unique group-specific background of the lesbian or gay career client must be considered in how the client is seen and how interventions are planned. At the same time, the counselor must remember the more general principles and concepts that apply to good career work with any client. James M. Croteau and Suzanne M. Hedstrom are both assistant professors in the Department of Counselor Education and CounselingPsychology at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. The authors would like to thank Diane J , Prosser for her comments on an early version of this article.

Career Assessment With Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals

“…These investigators found that the period in which lesbians consolidated their lesbian identities did delay or disrupt the career development process. Such negative repercussions may be transitory, however, as an individual learns to manage stigma and to create affirmative environments through the successful progression of sexual identity development (Croteau & Hedstrom, 1993;Fassinger, 1995;Hetherington & Orzek, 1989).…”

Culturally Appropriate Career Counseling With Gay and Lesbian Clients

“…Issues to address in such a discussion include the how-tos (Croteau & Hedstrom, 1993;Pope & Schecter, 1992) and the whys associated with deciding to come out (Brown, 1975;Pope, 1995c). Professional counselors can help their clients consider the advantages and disadvantages of coming out in the workplace or school (Adams, 1997;Belz, 1993;Brown, 1975;Croteau & Hedstrom, 1993;Elliott, 1993;Morgan & Brown, 1991;Morrow, 1997;Pope, Rodriguez, & Chang, 1992;Pope & Schecter, 1992;Savin-Williams, 1993). They can provide clients with opportunities for behavioral rehearsals that are directed toward developing and training strategies for informing others.…”

Career Decision Self-Efficacy of Lesbians Throughout the Life Span

“…Engels ( I 994) postulated that the career development process addresses an individual's needs and goals that are associated with different stages of life; the focus and importance of career decision making and occupational choice may change over the years. In addition to environmental influences that affect both heterosexual women and lesbians, lesbians have the additional variable of sexual orientation, which makes it imperative to consider the impact of being lesbian and the prejudice against lesbian and gay individuals when making choices in work and career (Croteau & Hedstrom, 1993; Hetherington & Orzek, 1989; Orzek, 1992).Past research has suggested that sexual orientation does affect career choice and career development; however, little research exists regarding the actual career development process of women who identify as lesbian (Shallenberger, 1998). Boatwright, Gilbert, Forrest, and Kretzenberger (1996) found that lesbians had often (a) reexperienced a second adolescence as they developed their lesbian identity, (b) experienced delays and disruptions in the career development process, and (c) experienced some career benefits from associating with other lesbians.…”