Assessing Women's Career Barriers Across Racial/Ethnic Groups: The Perception of Barriers Scale

The purpose of the study was to examine the factor structure, measurement invariance, and psychometric properties of a commonly used measure of perceived career barriers (The Perception of Barriers Scale; Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001) with racially diverse college women. The results supported a 9-factor structure for the Perception of Barriers Scale; configural, metric, and scalar invariance for the 9-factors were found with Asian, African American, Latina, and White college women. All groups of women of color reported higher career barriers due to racism and higher educational barriers due to racial discrimination than White women. The results also demonstrated potential differences in salient barriers for women of color (educational barriers due to lack of confidence/skills for Asian women, career barriers due to sexism and racism for African American women, and educational barriers due to financial concerns for Latina women). The reliability estimates of the subscales were satisfactory and support for criterion validity was demonstrated. The results highlighted the importance of measuring and identifying salient barriers for college women of color. Future research and practice implications for assessing and ameliorating salient barriers for college women are discussed. Public Significance Statement This study provides support for using an established instrument with college women of color to assess perception of barriers when pursuing educational and career goals. The findings highlight the importance of developing interventions to reduce barriers due to gender/racial discrimination, financial concerns, and lack of confidence and skills for college women of color.