Labor Force and Work Attitudes: Young Women's Early Experiences

We examine the relations between work-related attitudes and early labor force experiences using data from the National Longitudinal Study, of Young Women. Neither young women's work-related sex-role attitudes nor taste/for market Work while still in school affect the extent of employment during first .four years after schooling is completed. Women with long-range work plans start out in relatively low-paying, low prestige jobs, possibly, with higher chance for advancement compared to those who do not plan to work later. Attitudes and tastes change in response to certain job characteristics during this earl/period, but this process does not appear to depend on race. The general picture is one in which sex-role attitudes respond to, rather than affect, early work experiences. However, strong tastes for market work malt create patterns of earl,; labor force behavior which maximize the long-term rather than short-term benefit*s f employment and so might influence both timing of work and child-bearing, and characteristics of beginning jobs.