Career Assessment for Women: Trends and Issues

This paper briefly reviews the career-related issues facing employees with diverse surface characteristics (e.g., race/ethnicity, women, older workers, individuals with physical disabilities) and work status characteristics (e.g., part-time workers, contract employees, unemployed) at career choice and during career development. Following a description of these career issues, a review and evaluation of 44 psychometrically sound career assessment tools is provided that may be useful in individual assessment and career counseling with these targeted groups. The results of this review are discussed in terms of research and practice.

Section: Career-related Issues Facing Diverse Employeesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Career-related Issues Facing Diverse Employeesmentioning

confidence: 98%

A Psychometric Review of Career Assessment Tools for Use With Diverse Individuals

Eby

Johnson

Russell

1998

“…Barriers were postulated as a construct to explain the gap between women's abilities and their achievements or to explain the inhibition of women's career aspirations (Farmer, 1976;Fitzgerald & Crites, 1980;Matthews & Tiedeman, 1964; O' Leary, 1974). Evidence from empirical studies suggests that the construct of barriers does occupy an important role in explaining the career choice process, particularly as related to career indecision (Lucas & Epperson, 1990), to the career behavior of racial-ethnic minority students (Luzzo, 1993;McWhirter & Paa, 1996;Robinson & Swanson, 1997;Slaney, 1980; Slaney & Brown, 1983), and to the behavior of both women and men (Hackett & Lonborg, 1993;Swanson & Tokar, 1991a, 1991b.…”

Section: Mary B Woitke Southern Illinois University At Carbondalementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much has been written about general issues in using career assessment with women (Betz, 1992(Betz, , 1993Hackett & Lonborg, 1993;Subich & Billingsley, 1995) that should be considered in assessing the impact of perceived career barriers. For example, Hackett and Lonborg discussed the bias that might occur in an assessment interview if the counselor differentially attends to aspects of women's life roles.…”

Section: Assessing Perceived Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory Into Practice in Career Assessment for Women: Assessment and Interventions Regarding Perceived Career Barriers

Swanson

Woitke

1997

218

147

This article discusses how theory may be translated into practice in assessing women's perceived career barriers. It describes a theoretical perspective that is useful in considering the construct of perceived barriers, namely, social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), and summarizes the empirical literature regarding barriers, with particular attention to practical applications of the evidence. It then discusses how counselors might assess women's perceived barriers during career counseling and possible counseling interventions to address clients' identified barriers.A major purpose of assessment in career counseling is to identify characteristics of the client that relate either to individual difference variables-abilities, interests, values-or to the career choice processcareer indecision, career maturity, self-efficacy (Betz, 1992). One such characteristic is a client's perceptions of barriers to making and implementing a career choice. Understanding the barriers that interfere with the client's career development process is important in determining whether the client has considered the full range of available career options, the effectiveness of his or her decision-making skills, and the factors that may influence the implementation of a client's career choice.The concept of career-related barriers first appeared in discussions of the factors that are unique to the career psychology of women. Barriers were postulated as a construct to explain the gap between women's abilities and their achievements or to explain the inhibition of women's career aspirations

“…Within career assessment, the issues of sex and race bias are similar. In a discussion of sex bias in career assessment, Hackett and Lonborg (1993) noted two interrelated issues. First, the technical quality of assessment entails whether instruments demonstrate psychometric adequacy, in terms of reliability and validity.…”

Section: Psychometric Characteristics Of Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Career Assessment With African-American Clients

Swanson

Bowman

1994

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of issues related to using career assessment with African-American clients. We first discuss the philosophy and practice of career assessment, and present an expanded view of assessment. In the second section, we outline general issues in career counseling with African-American clients, including topics to explore in career counseling and the role of the counselor's and client's racial identity attitudes. The third section consists of specific issues in using career assessment with African-American clients, such as how race and racial identity attitudes might influence the process of assessment, and psychometric and theoretical issues in using career assessment instruments. The final section offers some directions for future research and practice regarding career assessment. Assessment traditionally has been a major component of career counseling. Effective use of career assessment requires the counselor to make a series of decisions (such as choosing a general strategy and specific instruments or techniques) and to apply specialized knowledge and skill in counseling (such as interpreting test results, integrating assessment into counseling, and facilitating a client's use of assessment). When the client is African-American, the counselor must be aware of the cultural context that race and ethnicity adds to each of the counselor's decisions and interventions regarding career assessment. In addition, race and ethnicity shape the client's view of him-or herself, the world of work, and the career choice process.The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of issues related to using career assessment with African-American clients, and includes four components. First, we discuss the philosophy and practice of career assessment, with a discussion of an expanded view of assessment. Next, we outline general issues in career counseling with African-American clients, including topics to explore in career counseling and the role of the counselor's and client's racial identity attitudes. The third section consists of specific issues in using career assessment with African-American clients, such as how race and racial identity attitudes might influence the process of assessment, Send correspondence and reprint requests to