Female Life Careers: A Pattern Approach

<p>Originally published in 1991 this volume represents the first systematic attempt to apply a pattern approach to a comprehensive longitudinal investigation. It focuses on individual differences in female career development from early adolescence through young adulthood. Rather than constructing a general model of career development the authors use the interplay between theory and observation to build networks of patterns demonstrating the long-term consequences for adult women's career involvement their educational levels their family commitments and their social networks.</p><p>Throughout their investigation the authors interpret individuals' patterns as characterizing processes that underlie women's differential development. They illustrate that a research strategy oriented toward pattern analysis and related methodology reveals information that is generally obscured in more traditional variable-oriented designs. They also argue that a pattern approach is particularly suited to the tenets of modern interactionism which provides the theoretical foundation of the study.</p>