The congruence of social-psychological factors and career choices of women in leadership positions in U. S. programs for the deaf

The major focus of this study was concerned with analyzing the social-psychological factors influencing the career choices of women in educational administration in residential and day school programs for the deaf in the United States and comparing this influence with that of these same factors upon women teachers in these programs who had worked for a five-year period and had not attained administrative positions.

The participants in this study consisted of two groups. The first group, the target group, was 141 top-level women administrators in 141 United States residential and day school programs serving the deaf who were identified in the April 1982 issue of American Annals of the Deaf. The second group, the control group, was 137 women teachers in seven residential school programs and twenty-three day school programs serving the deaf from a cross section of the United States who had obtained Master's degrees and had remained in a teaching position for at least five years and who had not attained top-level administrative positions.

The data in this study were obtained via questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was designed to obtain demographic data, social-psychological data, and data on subject attribution, the latter to determine external-internal locus of control.

The returned questionnaires were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Data obtained were subjected to frequency distributions, and the Chi-square and t-test of mean differences. The findings in this study showed no significant differences between the administrators and teachers on the social-psychological variables concerned with locus of control, lack of support from female peers, commitment to uninterrupted careers, relationship between family situation and professional qualifications, and sexual identity vs. career identity. The social-psychological variables which showed significant differences between the administrators and teachers and were deemed to be correlates of success for the women administrators in this study were: The development of mentor relationships with other administrators; the influence of other administrative role models; and the ability to mesh family responsibilities with a firm career commitment, career persistence, and career success.