Casual Models of Stability and Change in Women's Work Relevant Attitudes and Employment Behavior

摘要

The research investigates the extent of true change, apart from measurement error, in mature women's normative attitudes about employment and the relationship between such attitudes and the individual's own employment. Attitudes were found to change substantially in the period 1967-1972. Although attitudes in 1967 are related to prior employment, attitude change was not related to the extent of previous work experience or to work status at the start of the period (1967) but was related to the extent of employment in the intervening years. Attitudes themselves were also found to exert a considerable influence on the extent of subsequent employment. Even among mature women, therefore, both favorable attitudes and actual employment seem to have mutually reinforcing effects upon each other.