Assignment: Gender Career Counseling

Assignment: Gender Career Counseling

Permalink: 

Assignment: Gender as an Issue in Career Counseling

Issues that negatively impact the career development of women

Pregnancy – planned or unplanned

Inequities in salary, sexual harassment and various forms of discrimination

Time spent away from job because of child bearing

Willingness to sacrifice advancement so that a spouse can advance

Tradition and sex-role stereotyping may have persuaded women to stay away from STEM fields

This is information is helpful to remind career counselors of 2 types of obligations:

Make clients aware of what lies ahead in the work environment and help them develop coping skills

Assert ourselves to ameliorate oppressive forces in organizations

Sociological Perspective (Women)

Occupational sociologists have long recognized the influence of scholastic ability, family status and community variables in occupational success.

Since 1982 women earn more college degrees than men. In general, women are now better educated than men.

Family roles impact the career development of both men and women but have a greater impact on women than men

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Individuals

Barriers placed on these individuals by mainstream society

Coping with discrimination may result in lower self-esteem

Virtually ignored in the literature

Career counselors should begin with soul searching about their own beliefs

21 states plus the District of Columbia have laws that prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in both public and private jobs.

Pope and colleagues suggest that career counselors need to become advocates for the GLBT clients

Pope and colleagues point out that “coming out” in a 2-pronged process

First accepting one’s own sexuality

Second coming out to others

Career Counseling: Models and Methods

Most counselors tend to be eclectic borrowing from several theories

Brown believes that the age of the clients, nature of the clients served, the number of people to be served and the context (large group vs. individual), will influence your choice of an approach to career development

Spokane, Luchetta and Richwine (2002)

Does the approach allow for the development of the social support needed to move forward into the future?

Social support is important in shaping career aspirations and may be more important for clients from groups marginalized by societal bias

Does the approach allow individuals to gain information about themselves and their work environment?

When working with children, Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription and compromise should be incorporated to make children aware that they may have eliminated some occupations from their thinking prematurely based on sex-role stereotypes, social status and other factors.

Does the approach provide a framework for decision making?

Cognitive Information Processing Approach (Peterson, et al)

Super

Holland

Does the approach allow for crystallizing and cognitive rehearsal of vocational aspirations?

Does the approach mobilize the individual to move ahead in a constructive manner?