Developing Competence at Work

Even when the direction and specific content of their paths were uncertain, these women commonly expressed a desire to learn more and more. Their motivation seemed to come from within, as enjoyment of work produced eagerness for more knowledge and responsibility. When the work itself was not stimulating, women sought new avenues and assignments for fulfillment. Some describe how different kinds of learning worked to their advantage and advancement. With learning and accomplishment comes an increased sense of competence. Willing to take the risk of accepting assignments and positions for which they might have felt unqualified, they rediscover their abilities again and again. Those discoveries spawn motivation for further achievement. The process of overcoming initial doubt through accomplishment and thereby successfully taking on more affirms and extends confidence and competence. A sense of competence can serve as both a consequence and a prerequisite for this process.
Competence fuels confidence and an optimism that can turn problems into challenges. Nina, one of several women who began without degreed credentials, discovered her interest and strengths on the job. If you need custom written papers, order professional custom paper writing help online! Proving ability to herself and actively demonstrating it to others put a woman in a position to learn and do even more. Turning difficulties into a challenge and mistakes into opportunity can result in something bigger and better.
The most significant learnings for women have less to do with the job itself than with their own capabilities. Certainly, they are proving themselves to their employers, but much more importantly, they are discovering heretofore unknown aspects of themselves. This is especially the case for those who have come to work in circuitous ways. Unlike other women and men who have had the rites of passage afforded by specialized education or training, these women learn on the job that they are up to the task and that they enjoy it to an extent that makes work an essential part of life. Not only is their competence great enough to stretch over errors, but they can begin thinking about an actual career path.

Random Beginnings

Women enter the work force at different times in their lives and for a variety of reasons. Their employment paths often do not follow traditional lines, and they begin to define directions once they have begun work. Trusted Editing services for college and university people by experienced editors One woman, who preferred work to school, meandered through some course work until she discovered an interest in business that later was enhanced by the work itself. Even women with an abiding interest in work did not receive the strategic preparation that a male counterpart presumably would. If the prevailing ideology had changed such that females, as well as males, were to anticipate lifelong work, then the above characterization would not be as typical of females as it is. Women are known to talk about falling into a work situation or "things just happening to them," particularly advantageous things. In comparison to men, females had not been perceived by themselves or others as instrumental, as actively directing and planning career paths.
Many young women today are thinking about "what they want to be when they grow up" and consciously planning for lifelong paid work. A sizable number, however, have not been coached along those lines, and they will fall into work through various, random means. Our interviewees provide examples of how paid work entered their lives without their actively anticipating it. Exposure to encouraging work experiences, however, then served to secure in women a commitment to career comparable to that of men. Social change operated both by making opportunities available to women and by shaping female psychological readiness to profit from those opportunities. Consequently, random work entry could result in permanent career paths.
A change in family status can precipitate a woman's meeting an extant need for work. With few exceptions, the interviewees did not have masters' degrees in business administration. They entered the business world by diverse and sometimes circuitous routes. Few described a straight career path where scholastic preparation for immediate corporate entry could dictate the way up the ladder. It is not difficult to edit essay with the help of trained paper editors! Make your essay flawless! Locating the ladder and securing their footing would become these women's first tasks. In many cases, they would begin with scant business experience and, most crucially, with little knowledge about themselves and their skills in the business environment. They can articulate in retrospect their strengths and how they grew.

Divergent Natures of Men and Women Fade

Old assumptions about the divergent natures of men and women fade as we begin to recognize that within-gender differences exceed those between. Ambition and achievement are not solely male characteristics, and women can define work as central to their beings. Subsequent to participation in the study, several of the women responded to a questionnaire which included queries about work satisfaction. Almost without exception, all respondents indicated that they worked for reasons of self, that they would continue working even in the case of unequivocal financial independence, and that most would remain in their current positions or line of work.
Ego involvement in work can be as strong for women as it has been assumed for men. However, women born more than twenty years ago did not ordinarily follow the straight line to career that characterized male development. Trained written term paper are willing to help you with essay writing; customized services! Females did not grow up with the expectation that they would work for a living, their own or anyone else's. Messages to boys about their future as workers have been comparatively uniform and unequivocal throughout history. In contrast, women's variegated work history has had ramifications for the development of any individual female. If career expectations were part of a girl's socialization, they were likely to be either traditionally female or less specific, concrete, and inevi than those for boys. Just as traditional ideology prescribed, females did not prepare to spend most of their lives in the paid labor force; their entries were therefore adventitious and amenable to subordination and marginality. In the absence of a straight and narrow career path, the women interviewed took whatever route they found accessible and forged others.