Black Female Adolescents' Career Aspirations and Expectations: Rising to the Challenge of the American Occupational Structure

Career and life planning, while a complex task for people of all races and ages, is often compounded for black adolescent females. Social and economic traditions such as racism, poverty, and oppression have often retarded their employment perceptions, aspirations, expectations, and realities. This article explores the relationship between black female adolescents' career aspirations and expectations by examining the incongruencies among their career behaviors, aspirations, and expectations in relation to the realities of the American occupations structure. Additionally, black female adolescents' participation in and perception of the American labor force is reviewed. Recommendations are provided for personal and structural changes to facilitate the empowerment and success of tomorrow's young black working women. (Contains 30 references.) (GLR)