The Impact of Childhood Abuse on University Women's Career Choice
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Rosemary C. Reilly
A study is discussed that describes a link between childhood abuse and career choice for 12 university women. Purposive sampling was used, and the study employed a cross-case comparative approach with an emphasis on feminist principles. An interactive, collaborative interview was developed, prompting stories that reflected career choice processes. A general framework for processing the naturalistically obtained data was constant across the cases and was subjected to criteria to insure trustworthiness. Three basic themes emerged: (1) for women who were still enduring a cycle of pain and fear as a result of long-term child abuse, safety was a dominant concern; (2) women who had managed to transform their experiences approached career choice as a "mission" in order to right the wrongs of their past; and (3) negative cases that did not fit the general trend provided an opportunity to reexamine the data and the theme of distance. These results have important implications for vocational counseling and academic advising.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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- Editor's Note
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- Gender Differences Over the Span of College: Challenges to Achieving Equity
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- Communities of Exclusion: Women StudentExperiences in Information Technology Classrooms
- The Impact of Childhood Abuse on University Women's Career Choice
- She Fears You: Teaching College Men to End Rape
- A Man's Academy? The Dissertation Process as Feminist Resistance
- American Indian Women in Academia: The Joys and Challenges
- Program Description
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- Pilot Women's Empowerment Program
- Professional Peer Clinical Supervision: A Model for theProfessional Development of Counselor Educators
- Benefiting Female Students in Science, Math, andEngineering: Establishing a WISE Learning Community
- Mentoring-for-Leadership Lunch Series for Women SEMFaculty
- Book Review
- The Balancing Act: Gender Perspectives in Faculty Roles andWork Lives
- The Doctor's Complete College Girls' Health Guide: From Sexto Drugs to the Freshmen Fifteen
- "Strangers" of the Academy: Asian Women Scholars in Higher Education
- Removing Barriers: Women in Academic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
- College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Coeds, Thenand Now
Articles in the same Issue
- Editor's Note
- Editors' Note
- Article
- The National Association for Women in Education: An Enduring Legacy
- Gender Differences Over the Span of College: Challenges to Achieving Equity
- Leadership in a World of Divided Feminism
- A Window Into the Culture of Leadership Within Higher Education Through the Leadership Definitions of Women Faculty: A Case Study of ELAM Women Faculty Alumnae
- Welfare Women Go Elite: The Ada Comstock Scholars Program
- Communities of Exclusion: Women StudentExperiences in Information Technology Classrooms
- The Impact of Childhood Abuse on University Women's Career Choice
- She Fears You: Teaching College Men to End Rape
- A Man's Academy? The Dissertation Process as Feminist Resistance
- American Indian Women in Academia: The Joys and Challenges
- Program Description
- Virtual Women's Center
- Pilot Women's Empowerment Program
- Professional Peer Clinical Supervision: A Model for theProfessional Development of Counselor Educators
- Benefiting Female Students in Science, Math, andEngineering: Establishing a WISE Learning Community
- Mentoring-for-Leadership Lunch Series for Women SEMFaculty
- Book Review
- The Balancing Act: Gender Perspectives in Faculty Roles andWork Lives
- The Doctor's Complete College Girls' Health Guide: From Sexto Drugs to the Freshmen Fifteen
- "Strangers" of the Academy: Asian Women Scholars in Higher Education
- Removing Barriers: Women in Academic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
- College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Coeds, Thenand Now
