The importance of community context for young women's occupational aspirations

The effects of community context on occupational aspirations are examined in a national sample of young women in high school in the USA in 1979 (n=2,210). Multilevel statistical models indicate that young women living in counties with a lower divorce rate, a lower percentage of women working, and more people employed in the wholesale and retail industrial sector tended to be less likely to aspire to paid work than young women living in areas with a higher divorce rate, a higher percentage of women working, and fewer people employed in the wholesale and retail industrial sector. Community context does not affect the level of young women's occupational aspirations as predicted by prior scholarship.