The idea for my coursework is the potential changing aspirations of teenage girls in modern 21st century Britain
Chapter one: Introduction
The idea for my coursework is the potential changing aspirations of teenage girls in modern 21st century Britain. An aspiration is a goal, which one hopes to achieve and in the case of my coursework, this is referring to careers, marriage and a family. I will aim to find out what teenage girls tend to prioritise.
I have chosen this topic, as I myself am a teenager and have my own views, wanting to pursue my education over having a family and children. I would like to compare my thoughts to girls of my own age so as to decide if this is a broad opinion. Previous research carried out by Sue Lees and Sue Sharpe has influenced my decision to compare results with those of my own.
This topic fits into the education, family and gender socialisation areas of the sociology syllabus.
Chapter two: research methods
Sociologists use a range of research methods. These include:
* Postal questionnaires- a list of pre-set questions posted to the respondent who completes and send back to the researcher.
* Questionnaire- a list of pre-set questions which are handed to the respondent to complete and then collected later.
* Formal structured interview- a list of pre-set questions that are read to the respondent who ticks off the answers. It is a formal question and answer session.
* Informal unstructured interview- the researcher has an idea of issues and topics to cover and the respondent is encouraged to answer at length.
* Participant observation- the researcher joins in the group and observes the groups' behaviour. Observation can be covert (covered and unknown to group) or overt (open and aware to the group).
For my primary research I could use a selection of methods to find out about the aspirations of teenage girls. The first is a questionnaire. A questionnaire is a list of pre-set questions handed to the respondent who completes and later hands back to the researcher. This would have many advantages, these being:
* Respondents can answer in their own time and so will not feel pressurised or rushed.
* Respondents will not feel put off by my appearance and so are more likely to answer personal questions.
From using a questionnaire I will be able to compare answers and collect statistical data. However, using a questionnaire does have its disadvantages, including:
* I will not be able to go into depth, likewise the respondent will not be able to answer in depth. I will therefore not obtain detailed results.
* Some questions may be misunderstood, as I am not present to cover queries. To overcome this I must make sure all my questions are clearly formatted and structured.
* People may lie which would mean I would be collecting inaccurate data, there is not a way to defeat this problem.
The second method is a formal structured interview. Again, this is a list of pre-set questions but is read to the respondent and answers ticked off in specified boxes, it is based in a formal environment. The advantages to this method are as follows:
* I can use a large sample with results that can be compared and turned into statistical data.
* Unlike a questionnaire, I will be able to explain unclear questions to the respondent.
However, disadvantages may occur in the fact that:
* It is easy to influence the answers of the respondent by my presence as they may not feel inclined to tell the truth or may feel embarrassed or ashamed with their answer and so give a false one.
* By a formal interview, questions have to be stuck to and getting in depth is difficult, as these questions tend to be closed questions.
* It is very time consuming, as individual interviews need to be carried out. I think this could be quite time wasting, as it is very much like a questionnaire and wouldn't provide different results.
Another form of an interview is an informal unstructured interview. The researcher has an idea of issues and topics to cover and the respondent is encouraged to answer at length. Advantages to this are:
* I can rephrase questions and ask for extra information, assisting me in obtaining an in depth account about girls aspirations.
* The respondents will have the opportunity to use their own words and give an in depth account. They would hopefully be more open an honest as it is in an informal environment.
Despite this, many disadvantages occur when using this method, these being:
* It is time consuming.
* Only a small amount of interviews can occur because they tend to last a long time, meaning I would get a lot of information but not a lot to compare it to because each interview is unique.
* The size of the sample is too small so the results are unlikely to represent the population being studied.
* I am not a skilled interviewer so it may be difficult to make people feel comfortable and record results appropriately.
I have decided that the methods I will finally use will be:
* A questionnaire
* informal unstructured interview.
My reasons for choosing these methods are as follows:
From handing out questionnaires I can use a variety of questions, covering topics such as marriage, careers and family. I can use a selection of open and closed questions. I doubt there would be a problem with respondents feeling uneasy about because my questionnaires will be confidential, as knowing their name is not necessary to my research and this would hopefully ensure that they answer truthfully. I will be able to gather my results and convert them into statistical data, which will hopefully gain a broad opinion as I hope for. I will have to ensure that the questions I use are clear and structured properly so as not to confuse the respondent. I could perhaps format the questions into sections on the family, marriage and career so as to provide a clear representation.
I will carry out an initial pilot study. In doing so I will interview two or three teenage girls in an unstructured format. This will be useful as I will be able to format relevant questions that will ensure I get results that link directly to my aim and are of more relevance to girls aspirations. However this may not be effective because during a pilot study I could gain a lot of information that may be hard to narrow down into one formal structured interview. I will use the results from this to create my questionnaire and a structured informal interview, using the same questions but allowing the interviewee to elaborate just like in the pilot study but with a more firm set of questions.
Sociologists use a variety of methods for sampling; these are either forms of random sampling or non-random sampling. Random sampling gives everyone in the population, an equal chance of being selected, these include:
* Simple random sampling- drawing names from a hat or computer at random.
* Stratified random sampling- where the sample reflects the different groups within the population for example class and ethnicity.
* Cluster sampling- where a cluster of- for example areas in England- are selected randomly and then a select sample from each of the areas.
Non- random sampling doesn't give everyone in the population a chance of being picked. There are three forms of this, these being:
* Systematic sampling- taking say, every 10th from the sampling list to get the desired sample size for research.
* Snowball sampling- where there is no sampling frame and so the researcher starts by making contacts with a member of the population, gains their trust and are introduced to another person and gradually builds up contacts with others.
* Quota sampling- the researcher is told to interview an exact number of people from certain categories.
It will be very expensive and time consuming to hand out questionnaires to every teenage girl in the school so I will have to take a sample of the population I am studying- this being teenage girls aged 13 to 16 in years 9, 10 and 11- to represent everyone. It is important for my sample to be representative so that I can come up with statements and conclusions that apply to the whole population as well as the small group that is sampled. If the sample is not representative to the research it will be invalid.
The way in which I will obtain my sample is by one form of non- random sampling and one form of random sampling. I will use quota sampling sampling, where I will hand out questionnaires to 2 students from each of the above year groups. This will be less hassle as it is easy to depict what years girls are in and I will be able to confirm this by asking them.
For my initial pilot study I will use a simple random sample, whereby I will pick one person at random from each year group, every member of the population will have an equal chance of being picked. From the results of these 3 people I will construct a structured informal interview and conduct this with a further 2 people each year group. I will therefore gain results from the same amount of people in each year group deriving from a variety of ages.
As a researcher I am expected to abide by a set of key principals that are put into practice during research investigations for it to be ethical and follow practical standards of behaviour and procedures. These include:
* Keeping the respondents rights protected
* Respondents/participants have a right to privacy
* No harm should be done to others as a result of the research
* Researchers should be honest, truthful and open in their methods and behaviour.
For my research I will do the following things to keep my practice ethical:
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This is a preview of the whole essay
As a researcher I am expected to abide by a set of key principals that are put into practice during research investigations for it to be ethical and follow practical standards of behaviour and procedures. These include:
* Keeping the respondents rights protected
* Respondents/participants have a right to privacy
* No harm should be done to others as a result of the research
* Researchers should be honest, truthful and open in their methods and behaviour.
For my research I will do the following things to keep my practice ethical:
* Clearly explain what my research is about, what my aims are and ask whether the respondent wants to take part in the research instead of telling them that they must because they have been picked on account of sampling.
* Inform the respondent that they have the right to retract from the research at any time and have the right to decline any question asked.
* Inform them that they have the right to privacy and that confidentially of their data will be protected.
To accomplish my aim of identifying whether or not changes in teenage girl's aspirations have occurred, I will have to also explore a variety of secondary sources. The purpose of doing so is to compare possible previous findings of this topic and see if changes in attitudes among teenage girls in the case of family, children and career have occurred. By investigating secondary sources I will be able to justify my findings and back up my conclusions and my hypotheses that most girls are more focused on gaining a career rather than getting married and/or having a family if this is the case. I will use the Internet and search engines to gain secondary resources or I shall explore the text of sociologists I am aware of that have explored my aims.
Chapter three: information from secondary sources
In this chapter I will explore relevant secondary resources relating to my aim of identifying whether or not changes in teenage girl's aspirations have occurred. I have used the Internet to gain newspaper articles and have taken extracts from books written by sociologists who have undertaken similar studies as mine.
Secondary resource number 1:
Sue Lees is a well-known sociologist and was the co-ordinator of the women's studies unit at the University of London. In the mid 1980's she carried out an array of research on teenage girls, with the aim of finding out their views on such aspects as love, marriage, education, violence and sexual relations. This research was later transferred to a book named 'sugar and spice: sexuality and adolescent girls.'
Below are some extracts from her findings of teenage girl's views on marriage, a career and children.
Marriage
'Sue Sharpe (1976) in her study of over 200 girls from the fourth forms of four schools in Ealing in the 1970s found too that 82 percent of them wanted to marry- a third of them hoped to get married by the time they were 20 and three quarters by the age of 25. They accepted that a husband and family were the most satisfying things in a woman's life.
The girls I interviewed in the mid 1980's were either unaware or embarrassed to talk about sex openly. They still saw marriage as eventually inevitable, though cohabitation before marriage was preferred by a number of girls.'
' Girls are realistic about the constrictions of. Marianne's view of that she would get married 'when I have had my life' is shared by others. Frequently girls refer to 'having fun', 'travelling the world' and 'doing what I want' before settling down'.'
' The girls I interviewed in the 1980's talked in terms of careers as a way of delaying the inevitability of marriage and in terms of working after marriage, combining careers with marriage
Exploring this text written by Lees thoroughly interested me. It is evident that attitudes changed in terms of marriage from the 1970s when Sue Sharpe investigated, to the mid 1980's- a gap of ten years so I would expect that that views of teenage girls have altered in the past 15 to 20 years. Sue Sharpe found that the majority of teenage girls involved in the study wanted to get married by the latest of 25 whereas Lee's concluded that although girls saw marriage as a definite probability, they would like to live their lives more freely and have career aspirations in mind. These results are what I predict are more probable that I will find.
Children
' Some girls regard having children as marking the end of your life:
"Children- I'd like them, but not for a long time. Not really until I've sort of lived my life."'
' Marriage is on the whole regarded as necessary for children, but some girls do not take marriage for granted:
" I'd like to marry, say about 28 or 30, more that age, when you have enjoyed yourself and settle down and have a family. I would want to have a child some time, but not for a long time"'
" Actual marriage, I don't think it's necessary unless you're going to have children and I cant visualise myself having children."'
Sue Lee's found very varied opinions on having children but on the whole most of the girls asked, didn't want to have children for a considerably long time which is what I expect to find from my investigation.
Career
' Few of the girls even in this group actually go on to successful careers, and the evidence suggests the drop in any aspirations is rapid...some fantasise about careers in order to delay thinking about marriage, and it is not until after their school leaving certificates that girls as a group fall behind boys as they reconcile themselves to the reality of marriage and poor opportunities'
'Boyfriends and marriage can easily interfere with career intentions, and girls can see what has happened to their mums and how little autonomy they have. Some would like to delay marriage in order to develop a career.'
This interested me because Lee's finding are very similar to what I expect to find. She found that a career was a very common antidote to postponing marriage. Many girls are very set on having jobs but tend be destined to a life of little opportunity. While Lee's found that aspirations were dropping quickly I believe I will find that they are now on the increase.
Secondary resource number 2:
Amelia Hill writes for the Observer newspaper, she herself found secondary research carried out by Cosmo girl - a leading teenage girl's magazine. She wrote an article concluding the magazines results to suggest the aspirations of teenage girls of 2003.
Career
'According to a survey of 5,000-plus teenage girls, their main ambition is to complete university then return to the homestead- whether their partners like it or not.'
This contrasts heavily to Lee's research, as the option of university of was not mentioned in her studies. Girls used a career as delaying marriage whereas in this study by Amelia Hill, girls appear strong-minded and capable to combine the two of their own free will. As this study was carried out very recently I will expect to find the same general opinion as this source of secondary research.
Marriage
'Instead of making a career for themselves, girls today plan to be married by the age of 25- three years below the current national average of 28.2 years old. And although 43% of those questioned believe they should continue with their education until they have achieved a university degree, one on four say getting married is their number one priority in their life.'
I think this piece of information is very unusual as is contradicts the above statement. The research shows that girls want to get married at a considerably younger age than average. I also noticed that it was very similar to Sue Sharpes research carried out nearly 30 years ago where she found that the girls in her study wanted to get married by the time they were 20 and three-quarters by the age of 25 which is common to the girls in the 2003 study. This suggests to me that value about marriage have still very alike and it will be interesting to see if I find the same thing.
Children
'On average, teenage girls plan to have their first child at 26 and most plan to have one or two children over the following years. " This is so unsurprising," says Agony Aunt Claire Rayner. "The majority of girls have no glamorous future and noting very special to look forward to. All they can hope for is their own, and their own baby- like their mothers and their grandmothers"'
I think Claire Rayners perception of this finding was very pessimistic. The age at which most girls want to have children didn't astonish me and like Claire, I wouldn't be surprised to find this age as an average in my own research although I disagree that it will be for the same reasoning as Rayne's gave. The number of children that girls plan to have on average did startle me as the national average is only 1.64 children.
Secondary research number 3:
During May 2003 a website call smartgirl.org asked visitors to the site about their dream job. 359 people responded 98% of which were girls with an average age of 15, an age which will be included in my population. They asked:
What is your dream job?
They found that the majority of girls want to work in entertainment with as little as one percent wanting to be a parent as a full time career. Many girls wanted to pursue a career in healthcare-a traditionally gender specific job. Law and literature were also other popular choices. I would like to find out
Primary research
Primary research is the crucial concept of my investigation in identifying whether or not changes in teenage girl's aspirations have occurred. Over the past few weeks I have been carrying out a range of research tasks using different methods. These were:
An initial pilot study to enable me to a wider range of questions to obtain answers to be used for questions in a formal interview and questionnaire which will have significant relevance to my three topics- family, marriage and careers.
A questionnaire with the use of a range of closed questions applicable to the above three topics. I decided to use closed questions as this would provide me with statistical data only and would be easier to collate.
An informal structured interview whereby I asked questions in a laid back manner that were used in my questionnaire but which could be elaborated and explored with the use of open questions so as to form qualitative data which I will analyze later.
Enclosed, are presentations of my research, for example questions asked and results found. I have analyzed each source of my research, referring back to my secondary sources. This will later allow me to evaluate my project and assist me in concluding whether, and to what extent aspirations have changed.
Part 1- presentation of results
Primary research 1- initial pilot study
Results
Having carried out all 3 primary research methods I will present results found using quotes and graphs. I will use a combination of statistical data and qualitative data, which I will later in this chapter, analyse. The first piece of data is from an initial pilot study.
A pilot study is similar to an unstructured informal interview in the fact that it gives the respondent the opportunity to use their own words and give an in depth account and as the researcher it enables me to ask a wider range of questions to obtain answers to be used for questions in a formal interview and questionnaire which will have significant relevance to my three topics- family, marriage and careers. This will assist me in identifying whether or not changes in teenage girl's aspirations have occurred.
Below are a list of questions I used as guidelines:
> How far do you intend on pursuing your education?
> Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
> What do you consider of most importance? A career, building a family or marriage and why?
> Do you think it is men or women who have more opportunity in society?
> What are your parent's expectations of you? Do you feel pressured by them and how?
> Do you have any role models for example on television, in magazines or your parents or teachers?
> What do you feel are the expectations of your friends when leaving school and does this influence you in any way?
> Where do you see yourself in 20 years time?
> How likely do you feel you will reach your goals
> Do you think you have more of a chance in achieving your goals than you mum did when she was your age?
I have tried to link these questions to the questions in similar studies from my secondary research that I believe gained successful and interesting answers.
I interviewed 3 year 11 students for my pilot study and gained the following answers to the below questions asked. I have only taken quotes from each person's answers because I felt these were the most prominent aspects that came out of the pilot study.
How far do you intend on pursuing your education?
'Quite far, I'll do A-levels in 6th Form College and will hopefully do a law degree at university.'
'I'm going to go to college and Uni (where?) Oxford, it's meant to be good!'
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
'I will be earning good money, be living on my own and be independent'
'I'll be settled with a long term boyfriend and a long term job'
'Earning lots of money''
What do you consider of most importance? A career, building a family or marriage and why?
'Career because I'd like money to start a family- I want to have a wicked wedding dress!'
'A career- you need money to start a family'
'A career- I don't want to have to rely on others, I don't want to be a burden'
What are your parent's expectations of you? Do you feel pressured by them and how?
'High expectations, my dad wants me to get a good degree and expects me to get no B's at GCSE'
'I feel a little pressure but they want me to succeed. They check up on me'
'To finish my education...not get pregnant.'
What do you feel are the expectations of your friends when leaving school and does this influence you in any way?
'The majority share the same views and ambitions but some of them come from different backgrounds and so they think differently. The don't have as high aspirations.'
'Yeah, we both want to be successful and have families later in life'
'No. It's divided, not a lot of them think about education. I'm not influenced by them but they have made me really confident.'
Where do you see yourself in 20 years time?
'One child, hopefully they will be provided by both parents. I'd like to get married and settle down around 30... I don't want to rely on my husband.'
'A family...the boss of a very big company!'
'Married with 2 kids and a successful film director'
I then added some questions about their dream jobs
What is your dream job?
'A Music therapist'
'A film director'
'A journalist'
How easily do you think you will reach this dream job?
'It'll be a lot of work but I'll get there...money would hold me back'
'I like to think I would reach it easily but I can imagine working on music videos- there aren't many women film directors.
What route will you take to achieving your dream job?
'I'll go to film school in London and build up good contacts'
'No choice is there really, it's education all the way'
Primary research 2- questionnaire
Results
After carrying out my pilot study I created a questionnaire, split into 3 different sections children, career, marriage. I handed out questionnaires (copy enclosed) to 6 students, 2 from each year group (9,10,11) as this is the population in my study.
Marriage
I asked a variety of questions relating to their own opinions on marriage, the state of their parent's relationship and about cohabitation. I found that
* Out of 6 girls 83% said marriage wasn't important to them and that half of them actually wanted to get married. Those that did wanted to get married between the ages of 26-30.
* 66% of the girls I asked had divorced parents, and of this 66%, 50% wanted to get married.
* 100% of teenage girls I interviewed didn't think it was important to be married when having children and 0% felt pressured to get married, I could therefore not conclude who they may have felt pressured by making the question 'if yes, by who' irrelevant.
* An equal number of girls (17%) said the reasons that were or would stop them from thinking about getting married would be 'they were scared the relationship wouldn't last' or 'it cost too much'.
* 70% agreed that it was because 'marriages around them had failed and that it wasn't necessary in a relationship.
* 100% said that they would like to cohabit with their partner before getting married and everybody said for over a year.
Career
This part of the questionnaire consisted of questions relating to what teenage girls wanted to do after leaving school, their dream jobs and their definitions of a career. I found that
* 83% of the girls asked, wanted to go to 6th form and then University and only 17% wanted only to go to 6th form. Nobody said the wanted to get a job or didn't know what they wanted to do.
* 100% of the girls confirmed that having a career was important to them and 33% thought they were limited in how far they could take their education, an equal 50% said they thought this was because they weren't clever enough and that they didn't have enough money.
* I then asked about dream jobs. 33% of the girls said their dream job was in the media, and 33% in entertainment. Others said they didn't know or that it was in another field.
* 67% thought they had a lot of chance in gaining their dream job as opposed to the 33% who said they thought they had little. 50% said hard work was their route in gaining this dream job and 33% said it was through education. 17% said it would be through looks talent and contacts.
* I asked what career they saw themselves in realistically and 83% said they didn't know, only 17% said their dream job.
* 67% said pressure does exist to be successful and that this pressure comes mainly from the parents (50%)
* When defining a career an equal 33% sad it was about earning money and providing for yourself and others. And again, an equal 17% said it was something you work hard for and putting what you are good at to the test.
Children
Here I asked questions concerning their own views on having children, for example when and how many. I found that
* 100% of the girls would like to have children.
* 83% of this 100% would like to have children between the age of 25-29 and 17% between 30-35.
* 34% would like only one child and an equal 33% would like 2 or 3. Nobody said they would like more than 3.
* 83% of the girls said that if they were to have children they would like them during a career, compared to 17% who would like to have them after. Nobody said they would like children before a career.
I then asked some general questions to conclude my questionnaire. The questions asked generally what state they saw their lives in, in the future concerning not one of the 3 topics asked but a combination. I found that
* 100% thought that having a career was most important to them when thinking about the future.
* 50% said they thought this view may change in the next 10 years time, compared to 33% who said no they didn't think it would. 17% were unsure.
* I asked where they see themselves in 10 years time as a whole. A huge 50% said unmarried, in a career and without children. 33% said in a career, married and with children and 17% said married, without children and in a career.
Primary research 3- Separate study
I carried out a separate study with a teenage girl who attends a mixed school, as all the girls in my population are from a girl's school. I thought it would be interesting to find out if her opinions about career, marriage and children differed because of being educated around males. I handed her a questionnaire and these were her answers.
Marriage
Is getting married important to you? No
Do you want to get married? Yes
At what age? 30+
Do you think it is important to be married when having children? Yes
Do you feel pressurised to get married? No
Would you like to live with your partner before getting married? Yes
Career
What do you want to do after leaving year 11? 6th form and University
Is having a career important to you? Yes
What field is your dream job in? Childcare
How much chance do you think you have of reaching this dream job? A lot
How will you reach this dream job? Hard work
Realistically what career do you see yourself in? My dream job
Do you feel pressured to be successful? Yes
By who? Everyone
A career is...? Being able to provide for yourself and others
Children
Do you want children? Yes
How many? 2
Between what ages? 30-35
Would you like to have children before,after,druing a possible career? After
General questions
Which is most important when thinking about the future? A career
Do you think your views will change within 10 years time? Yes
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? In a career, without kids or a marriage
Part 2- Result analysis
Having gathered, collated and presented my results I will now analyse them individually, making definite reference to my secondary sources.
Pilot study
The general conclusion I came to having obtained these results, it that it is obvious that these 3 are very career based, they want to be extremely successful and want to earn lots of money. All of their parents expected them to pursue an education and only in some cases did pressure exist which tended to come from their Fathers. In Lee's research she found that ' Few of the girls even in this group actually go on to successful careers, and the evidence suggests the drop in any aspirations is rapid. Some fantasise about careers in order to delay thinking about marriage ' this did not appear to be the case in my study as all girls were set on going to University and didn't even question marriage at this point in their lives. They all agreed that a career was the only way they would contemplate starting a family because money is needed. In Amelia Hill's later study she concluded that the 'main ambition (of teenage girls) is to complete university then return to the homestead.' This appears to be untrue to my results as all 3 wanted to attend an institution of higher education but within 10 years of their lives from now when they would have completed university be 'earning good money, be living on my own and be independent'. Her results were in some ways very similar to mine in the fact that girls plan on taking their education to university level, '43% of those questioned believe they should continue with their education until they have achieved a university degree' however this number was less than half and although I only interviewed 3 girls 100% of them wanted to go to university. All had a dream job in lines of media and entertainment but were unsure if it was possible to gain this dream career, although they still agreed that education was the only route. Smartgirl.org found, like me, that a job in the entertainment would be most desired and the majority was certain of reaching this through means of education. My results were not as strong as this so I thought it would be interesting to find out if this was a thorough feeling or just that of the 3 girls in my study.
When asked about relationships, they all saw themselves in one within 10 years time but appeared to more focused on a career and there wasn't even talk of a family or marriage. This changed however when I asked' where do you see yourself in 20 years time.' All 3 girls wanted a family with atleast one child. In Sue Lee's study, she found a varied approach to marriage, finding that most girls wanted to be married towards the age of 30 which is slightly younger than the age in my results as all girls will be 35/36 and would all like to be married. Amelia Hill found that 'Instead of making a career for themselves, girls today plan to be married by the age of 25- three years below the current national average of 28.2 years old.' This differed to my results, which I found interesting because I would have expected her results to be more similar to mine than Sue Lee's as it is a more recent research. The girls in my study saw themselves only in a career at the age of 25, when Amelia suggested girls had tendency to wanting to get married. 'One on four say getting married is their number one priority in their life.' This was the outcome again of Amelia Hill's research. I cannot compare her results with mine as I only interviewed 3 girls but I as quite surprised at this finding as when I asked 'What do you consider of most importance? A career, building a family or marriage' every teenage girl said a career.
As for children, I found that not a lot was said of this particular topic so when creating my questionnaire I will have to think more carefully of questions to ask. Within 20 years of now, they all want to have children, 2 at the most. Sue Lee's found that teenage girls in her study thought 'I'd like them, but not for a long time.' This still appears to be the case.
From this I have been able to analyse prominent features that girls had a sufficient amount to say from each topic -a family, marriage and a career. I will defiantly use the idea of 'dream jobs' within my questionnaire because I think it will eventually portray how high girls hope to reach, if wanting to pursue a career which will hopefully assist me in answering my aims and seeing if my hypotheses is correct. I believe that using the idea of family and peer pressures will have an interesting result and this could effectively determine how aspired a teenage girl is. I need to go into more depth as to which topic girls prioritise in their life as this will hopefully gain a further insight and will answer my aims.
Questionnaire
Marriage
With this statistical data I am able to compare my results with Sue Sharpe's study in 1976. She recorded '82 percent of them (teenage girls) wanted to marry-.' In contrast, I found that only 50% of girls in my study wanted to get married, showing a drop of 32% in 28 years. Those that wanted to get married would like to between the ages of 26-30. There is a slight change in my results as to what Sue found, as she concluded that 'a third of them hoped to get married by the time they were 20 and three-quarters by the age of 25.' Sue Lee's later found in the mid 80's that cohabitation before marriage was preferred by a number of girls.' I also found this, however it was all girls that desired this. Amelia Hill's recent study showed that 'girls today plan to be married by the age of 25- three years below the current national average of 28.2 years old.' This is very likened to Sharpes study almost 30 years ago, strangely, as I would have expected it would have had a closer outcome to that of my own results. From this I was able to answer three of my aims 'Do girls want to get married?', ' at what age?' and, 'Is marriage necessary when having children?'
Career
From carrying out my pilot study I already had a strong awareness of how aspired girls were to having a career and so being able to ask more specific questions I knew I would gain an interesting result. In Lee's study from the 1980's she found that 'girls as a group fall behind boys as they reconcile themselves to the reality of marriage and poor opportunities.' However, every girl in my study concluded that a career was important and were all certain of what they wanted to do when leaving year 11. A massive 83% wanted to go onto higher education and those that didn't, had an idea of what they wanted to do, nobody said they didn't know. The 33% that said they felt limited - poor opportunities- still wanted to have a career, however these people weren't sure what career they saw themselves going into in comparison to those who didn't feel limited. Amelia Hill found from her study that 'their main ambition is to complete university then return to the homestead' whereas, like I found in my pilot study, within 10 years of their lives from now, when they would have completed university 50% said they saw themselves in the situation where they are 'unmarried, in a career and without children.'
When asked about ideal jobs I noticed a similarity between my third secondary source and my own result, as girls in each study mostly wanted to work in entertainment, 33% in my study. Media was not listed as a category in my secondary source but I assumed media came under entertainment, and an equal 33% of my participants ideally would like to work in this field. I was quite surprised that nobody 'dreamt' of working in healthcare as girls who participated in smartgirl.org's survey vastly desired it. However, I took into account that they carried out their survey on a larger study of teenage girls. When I asked how much chance they thought they had of reaching this dream job, 67% thought they had a lot of chance in gaining their dream job as opposed to the 33% who said they thought they had little. This was extremely similar to the results of the website as a large number of people had the same opinion. Nobody in my study said they thought they had no chance of reaching this dream job whereas many people in the websites survey said 'no way.' Less than 50% from my study said education was the route they would take to reach this dream job, whereas the vast majority of he sites participants voted this route. I think the girls that took part in my questionnaire may have confused the option of 'hardwork' with 'education' and ticked this, as education was the latter option of the question. I then thought it would be interesting to ask what job they saw themselves in realistically and a huge 83% didn't know with only 17% stating 'my dream job.' This was interesting and it showed that despite the majority being sure they could reach this dream job, a vast number didn't know what career path they would be going down despite knowing what they planned to do after leaving year 11. It came to my attention, both in my pilot study and questionnaire that money was a very important part in the girl's future, particularly in terms of having a career, as money was needed for opportunity. Girls in my study all felt pressured to be successful, mainly from their parents but also by themselves and all of the choices in the question, including the media and their friends. From asking girls about a career I was able to answer the following aims: 'How far do girls want to pursue their education?', 'What level of education?' , 'What careers are girls interested in?' , 'Do girls feel limited in how far they can take their education?' and 'Does pressure exist to be successful?'
Children
Every teenage girl in my study wanted to have children. Claire Rayner, an agony Aunt who was mentioned in my secondary sources suggests that 'On average, teenage girls plan to have their first child at 26 and most plan to have one or two children over the following years.' This largely mirrored my findings as I had expected as '83% of this 100% would like to have children between the age of 25-29' and '33% would like 2 or 3.' She also said 'The majority of girls have no glamorous future and noting very special to look forward to. All they can hope for is their own, and their own baby- like their mothers and their grandmothers.' However I have already discovered that girls are sure of what they want to do after they leave yr11 and 83% of the girls said that if they were to have children they would like them during a career proving that if girls are too have children, they would also like to combine their career with this. Amelia Hill's suggestion also contradicted mine as she said girls 'main ambition is to complete university then return to the homestead'. 100% of girls in my study said marriage wasn't important when having children, whereas in Lee's study she found that 'Marriage is on the whole regarded as necessary for children.' Here I was able to answer the following aims 'At what stage of a career would girls like children?' , 'Do girls want to have children?', 'If so, at what age and how many?'
The last part of my questionnaire asked general, overall questions. 100% of the girls concluded that a career was the most important thing to them when thinking about the future. 50% of them thought their views would change within the next 10 years and so only time can tell whether 'after their school leaving certificates that girls as a group fall behind boys as they reconcile themselves to the reality of marriage and poor opportunities' as Sue Lees said nearly 20 years ago.
Separate study
I have highlighted the answers I found quite interesting. Unlike the majority of girls in my study this teenage girl wants children between the ages of 30-35, her desired job was in childcare, just as many girls were in smartgirl.org's survey of teenage girls dream jobs. She wants to get married after she is 30, unlike any of the girls in my study who wanted to get married between the ages of 25-30. The thing that I found most interesting was that she was the only person who thought that it was important for couples to be married when having a child. She is obviously still aspired towards having a career and she thinks it is the most important thing when thinking about her future. I cannot say for sure whether or not these contrasting answers I have highlighted are anything to do with the fact that she goes to a mixed school but carrying out this separate study has been interesting.
Chapter 5- evaluation and conclusion
From my study the general conclusion is that the majority of teenage girls are more focused on having a career than they are on having children and getting married, although getting married was a more favourable option. Most girls still want to do these things at some stage in their lives but at present are not contemplating them in depth, as they are a career. When girls are asked about their dream jobs, these occupations tend to be in the line of entertainment and few girls are certain that they will reach this dream job. It was an agreed outcome that education was the most suitable route to gaining a job and the majority of girls seem themselves in a career without children or being married in 10 years time although they believe their views are set to change within this time period.
The majority of my results contrasted Sue Lee's and Sue Sharpe's findings both from as long as 30 years ago. Girls from Sue Sharpe's study in 1976 all wanted to get married, many of them by the time they were 20. Sue Lee's research founded a varied approach on marriage, career and children but in closer proximity to mine. More recent studies by Amelia found results very similar results to mine in some cases but not so in others. Smartgirl.org's survey about dream jobs found, approaching the same population as me, found very close results but used a larger study of girls. Bearing in mind I used a variety of secondary sources from different time periods different comparisons could be made, so the level of change in aspirations varies from era to era.
My aim was to find out if whether or not changes in teenage girl's aspirations have occurred.