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To cite this article: Gerda Siann And & Anne Knox (1992) Influences on Career
Choice: The Responses of Ethnic-Minority and Ethnic-Majority Girls, British Journal of
Guidance & Counselling, 20:2, 193-204, DOI: 10.1080/03069889208253620
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Influences on Career Choice: the Responses of Ethnic-Minority and
Ethnic-Majority Girls
ent first considered her choice; and attitudes to work. In general, there were
minimal differences on aspirations and general influences on careers, but
Muslim girls reported more parental involvement, thought about choices
later, and were somewhat more instrumental in attitudes to work. These
results are discussed in the context of culturally mediated attitudes to edu-
cation and the interrelationships of career and family life.
In two previous studies (Siann and Khalid, 1984; Siann et al., 1990), we have
indicated that, contrary to stereotype, the families of British-born Muslim
girls are in general, positively disposed both to further and higher education
and to careers for girls. In the first study, we showed that Muslim mothers in
Scotland regarded higher education for girls as crucial in order for them to
be able to support themselves and their children, should family circum-
stances so dictate. In the second study, we showed that Muslim girls in both
England and Scotland regarded their parents as generally supportive of their
career aspirations, although it was also clear that Muslim parents in Britain
often do not have sufficient access to information about career choices.
Other researchers (e.g Saikh and Kelly, 1989; Verma and Ashworth,
1986; Brah and Minhas, 1985) have also argued that home background of
British Muslim girls is generally supportive of education. Again, research
from Pakistan (Karim, 1986) indicates that in Muslim countries, with
increasing industrialisation, Muslim parents are far more prepared than they
were in the past for girls to be autonomous and to take up careers before
marriage.
However, while Muslim parents are generally supportive of education
and careers for their daughters both in Britain and elsewhere, it is important
for non-Muslims to be sensitive to the powerful cultural and religious
traditions that influence and inform attitudes to both education and work.
As Kabbani (1986; 1989) has argued, education for women in Muslim
societies has been positively encouraged for most of this century, albeit
often in sex-segregated institutions (Al-Hariri, 1987). But this generally
‘Izzet’ is, for Jeffery, the central evaluation system in life-style in the
Muslim societies she studied in both India and Pakistan. It encapsulates the
status concerns of family members, and embraces not only social position,
caste and property, but more importantly the personal reputation and
honour of family members, particularly women. Jeffery notes that ‘izzet’ is
contagious and fragile. Thus individuals are judged not only on their own
behaviour, but by the company they keep and by the behaviour of members
of their family.
In previous work we have claimed that attitudes to education amongst
Muslim communities in Britain cannot be understood without reference to
this important concept. Specifically, we have argued that whereas for non-
Muslims formal education can be seen as an independent variable which is in
itself a positive construct, for Muslims formal education is one among many
interlinked variables that contribute to a family’s honour. In the West.
formal education, particularly at the tertiary level, is seen as intrinsically
refining, liberalising and broadening, whereas within the Islamic tradition.
formal education, particularly for those Muslims living in the West, is
viewed rather more pragmatically as training. The more important aspects
of self-development are seen as being taught in the home or at religious or
non-secular schools.
This can be illustrated by taking two concrete examples. In the case of a
girl who is academically inclined and is keen on a career, Muslim parents will
be extremely supportive of both higher education and career unless the
career is seen as potentially detracting from the girl’s reputation. (It is
important to note, however, that such careers are relatively uncommon. In
our previous research the only careers that were not supported by parents
were acting, and working in a men’s outfitting store.) In the case of a girl who
is not doing well at school, and who is not herself keen on a career, parents
may prioritise marriage rather than higher education or further education.
Our own research has indicated that most Muslim girls find this approach
acceptable. While they may resent the fact that their brothers do less work in
the house than they d o and have more freedom in their social life, they
adherence to strict Islamic dress might suggest that they are victims of
repression. He notes that the women he interviewed in Tehran were Islamic
feminists who ‘regarded their chandours as protection against the baser
instincts of men, shields which made it possible for them to walk down the
streets of cities on a basis of equality’(p. 24).
Our own previous research echoed these themes. The overwhelming
majority of our Muslim informants were proud of their cultural and religious
background. They did not feel that it detracted in serious or fundamental
ways from their educational and vocational aspirations. On the other hand,
such aspirations are not seen as being in any way separate from their own
immersion in their families and in their communities. With rare exceptions,
they seemed confident of their ability to find their own individual self-
expression within the framework of their families and communities.
In the research that we are now reporting, we wished to develop our
previous research by interviewing a sample of Muslim girls and comparing
their responses to those of a matched sample of girls from ethnic-majority
homes. We concentrated on four related areas. The first was whether or not
there was any evidence that Muslim girls were ‘over-aspirational’ in their
career aspirations. It has been suggested in the literature that pupils from
South Asian communities are more upwardly aspirational than their peers
and that their aspirations are often unrealistic in comparison to their abilities
(for a review of this research, see Taylor and Hegarty, 1985). Secondly, we
wanted to compare influences on career choice. Thirdly, we wanted to look
at when our respondents first started thinking about career choices. Finally,
we wanted to compare responses on a standard attitude-to-work scale.
Method
Sixty-nine female students were interviewed at two comprehensive schools,
37 from Muslim and 31 from ethnic-majority homes. One girl was a Nigerian
expatriate who was studying in Scotland: as she was a Christian, she was
included in the ethnic-majority sample. The girls were in the 4th, 5th and 6th
years and had been chosen by staff to represent a broad range of educational
Results
Career aspirations. Respondents were asked what they planned to do when
they left school. These responses were not pre-categorised in any way. As
table 1 shows, some responded with careers, and some with indications of
going on to higher education. It can be seen that there is relatively little
evidence that Muslim girls’ career choices are more aspirational than their
peers in general, though rather more are likely to choose medicine and to a
lesser extent accountancy than are non-Muslim girls.
Because of our desire to preserve our respondents’ anonymity, we had no
direct check from staff as to whether these respondents were realistic. We
did, however, attempt an indirect check by asking our respondents what
examinations they were entered for. Checking these projected examinations
against entry requirements for the careers or higher education chosen, we
estimated the ‘match’ by grouping girls into two categories: ‘aspirations
realistic when compared to examinations to be set’, and ‘aspirations too
As can be seen, the pattern of responses between the two groups was, in
general, comparable. It is of interest, however, that more Muslim girls
reported their families as the source of the idea, and that there appeared to
be a tendency for rather fewer Muslim girls, compared to their peers, to cite
school sources (career advice at school, exam success).
When respondentsfirst started thinking about career choices. Respondents
were asked when they first became aware that they had to make some
decision about their future after they left school. Once again, answers to this
open-ended question were coded after the interviews. These responses
revealed that Muslim girls became aware of this rather later than their peers,
with 39% reporting such awareness later than the second year of secondary
school, compared to 25% of their peers (9 = 6.10, p<.05).
‘Miral’, for example, who was a prefect and was due to sit four Highers,
planned to be a primary school teacher. She said that she had really only
realised that she had to make a choice after sitting her 0-grades, and had
made her choice after a work placement. She said of this: ‘I made my choice
girls more likely to agree, x2 = 15.8, p<.Ol); and ‘The only important thing
about a job is to work in pleasant surroundings with friendly people’
(Muslim girls more likely to agree, x* = 9.28, p<.05).
Following this item-by-item analysis, the two groups were compared on
the two typologies developed by Taylor (1975) and Kantas (1985). No
significant differences were revealed between the Muslim and non-Muslim
girls on either of these typologies. When a principal components analysis
was carried out on our own respondents’ responses, only two factors
contributed over 10% of the variance. The first of these (contributing 15.4%
of the variance) did not differentiate between the two groups. The second
factor, however, did. This factor contributed 12.0% of the variance, and was
loaded heavily on items concerned with pay, promotion and leisure time,
whilst having negative loadings on items concerned with the intrinsic interest
and value of the job. Muslim girls scored statistically significantly higher on
this factor than their peers (t = 2.08, pc.05); that is, they appeared to place
relatively more emphasis o n instrumental aspects of work.
These results point to two areas that have already been highlighted in the
earlier sections of this paper. The first of these centres on the importance to
Muslims of the ‘respectability’ of a job (see the introductory discussion);
while the second centres on a tendency for our Muslim respondents to place
relatively more importance on pay and other related benefits when thinking
about a job than do their peers (see also the results relating to the short
influences-on-work questionnaire). We would like to expand on these issues
in the next section.
Discussion
In this paper, we have been reporting on the third part of a research project.
The first two parts (Siann and Khalid, 1984; Siann et al., 1990) have shown
little evidence that the majority of British Muslim girls are likely to be
hindered in their choice of career by parental restrictions. Like other
researchers (Kitwood and Borrill, 1980; Stopes-Roe and Cochrane, 1984;
1988), we found little evidence for conflict between young Muslim people
clearly articulated, but in most cases two threads were apparent: first, a
genuine interest in health issues; and second, a parental belief that medicine
was a highly desirable and respected profession. When we asked our
respondents about the possibility of their transferring this aspiration to other
health professions, it was obvious that there was considerable ignorance on
the part of these girls and that both the girls and their parents had little
knowledge of any paramedical careers other than pharmacy. Most of our
Muslim respondents’ parents had themselves been educated in Pakistan
and, working as most of them did in commerce, had little opportunity to
become aware of the full range of paramedical opportunities that their
daughters could aspire to. The implications, as we have noted before, are
clear. We believe that there is considerable scope for more information to be
disseminated to Muslim parents.
Turning away from these general issues to the specific issues we investi-
gated, we found in general relatively few differences between our two
groups of respondents. With respect to career aspirations, as table 1
indicated, Muslim girls did not have relatively higher career aspirations than
their peers. While the majority of both groups were aiming for professional
careers, similar numbers of both groups indicated interest in non-
professional qualifications, such as nursery nurse, shop assistants, etc.
Similarly, using our admittedly rather suspect index of realism, there were
no inter-group differences indicating ‘over-aspiration’ by Muslim girls.
The second issue we investigated - influences on career choice - also
revealed minimal inter-group differences. There was some indication, both
in the answer to specific questions and in general discussion, that Muslim
parents were more actively interested in their daughters’ careers, but - as in
previous studies - our Muslim respondents did not experience this as
unwanted pressure. We also gained the impression, reinforced by the
responses summarised in table 3, that Muslim girls obtained rather more
information from outside school sources than their peers, but we would
stress that the evidence for this is suggestive rather than conclusive.
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The authors would like to record their thanks to the headteachers and staff of
the schools in which the study was conducted. They would also like to record
their gratitude to the pupils who took part in the study, for their co-operation
and assistance.