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Influences on Career Choice:

The Responses of Ethnic-
Minority and Ethnic-Majority
Girls
a a
Gerda Siann And & Anne Knox
a
Department of Psychology Glasgow Polytechnic
Published online: 16 Oct 2007.

To cite this article: Gerda Siann And & Anne Knox (1992) Influences on Career
Choice: The Responses of Ethnic-Minority and Ethnic-Majority Girls, British Journal of
Guidance & Counselling, 20:2, 193-204, DOI: 10.1080/03069889208253620

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 Influences on Career Choice: the Responses of Ethnic-Minority and
Ethnic-Majority Girls

Gerda Siann and Anne Knox

Department of Psychology
Glasgow Polytechnic

In a study concerned with factors affecting career aspirations, 37 Muslim and

32 non-Muslim secondary-school girls were interviewed and their responses
compared in four areas: career aspirations and the extent to which these
matched examinations being sat; influences on career choice; when respond-
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ent first considered her choice; and attitudes to work. In general, there were
minimal differences on aspirations and general influences on careers, but
Muslim girls reported more parental involvement, thought about choices
later, and were somewhat more instrumental in attitudes to work. These
results are discussed in the context of culturally mediated attitudes to edu-
cation and the interrelationships of career and family life.

In two previous studies (Siann and Khalid, 1984; Siann et al., 1990), we have
indicated that, contrary to stereotype, the families of British-born Muslim
girls are in general, positively disposed both to further and higher education
and to careers for girls. In the first study, we showed that Muslim mothers in
Scotland regarded higher education for girls as crucial in order for them to
be able to support themselves and their children, should family circum-
stances so dictate. In the second study, we showed that Muslim girls in both
England and Scotland regarded their parents as generally supportive of their
career aspirations, although it was also clear that Muslim parents in Britain
often do not have sufficient access to information about career choices.
Other researchers (e.g Saikh and Kelly, 1989; Verma and Ashworth,
1986; Brah and Minhas, 1985) have also argued that home background of
British Muslim girls is generally supportive of education. Again, research
from Pakistan (Karim, 1986) indicates that in Muslim countries, with
increasing industrialisation, Muslim parents are far more prepared than they
were in the past for girls to be autonomous and to take up careers before
marriage.
However, while Muslim parents are generally supportive of education
and careers for their daughters both in Britain and elsewhere, it is important
for non-Muslims to be sensitive to the powerful cultural and religious
traditions that influence and inform attitudes to both education and work.
As Kabbani (1986; 1989) has argued, education for women in Muslim
societies has been positively encouraged for most of this century, albeit
often in sex-segregated institutions (Al-Hariri, 1987). But this generally

British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 193

 positive orientation to education is embedded in a complex set of interesting
values which has as its apex the duty to respect and honour Islamic
traditions. As we have argued before (Siann and Khalid, 1984), for Muslims
aspirations are not towards the achievements (both material and in terms of
status) of individuals in isolation but instead are focused on the present and
future well-being of the family. Central to such well-being is, of course, the
duty imposed on both individuals and families to honour the religious
requirements of Islam. Springing from this salient duty is the need for the
family to guard and protect its reputation, within the community, as devout
and honourable. Jeffery (1976) has argued that this need is best understood
by non-Muslims when they gain some appreciation of the values and
aspirations that are related to the term ‘izzet’.
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‘Izzet’ is, for Jeffery, the central evaluation system in life-style in the
Muslim societies she studied in both India and Pakistan. It encapsulates the
status concerns of family members, and embraces not only social position,
caste and property, but more importantly the personal reputation and
honour of family members, particularly women. Jeffery notes that ‘izzet’ is
contagious and fragile. Thus individuals are judged not only on their own
behaviour, but by the company they keep and by the behaviour of members
of their family.
In previous work we have claimed that attitudes to education amongst
Muslim communities in Britain cannot be understood without reference to
this important concept. Specifically, we have argued that whereas for non-
Muslims formal education can be seen as an independent variable which is in
itself a positive construct, for Muslims formal education is one among many
interlinked variables that contribute to a family’s honour. In the West.
formal education, particularly at the tertiary level, is seen as intrinsically
refining, liberalising and broadening, whereas within the Islamic tradition.
formal education, particularly for those Muslims living in the West, is
viewed rather more pragmatically as training. The more important aspects
of self-development are seen as being taught in the home or at religious or
non-secular schools.
This can be illustrated by taking two concrete examples. In the case of a
girl who is academically inclined and is keen on a career, Muslim parents will
be extremely supportive of both higher education and career unless the
career is seen as potentially detracting from the girl’s reputation. (It is
important to note, however, that such careers are relatively uncommon. In
our previous research the only careers that were not supported by parents
were acting, and working in a men’s outfitting store.) In the case of a girl who
is not doing well at school, and who is not herself keen on a career, parents
may prioritise marriage rather than higher education or further education.
Our own research has indicated that most Muslim girls find this approach
acceptable. While they may resent the fact that their brothers do less work in
the house than they d o and have more freedom in their social life, they

194 Volume 20 No. 2, May I992

 identify with the emphasis that both their parents and their community place
on enhancing the emotional and spiritual values of their culture within their
families. As Kabbani (1986; 1989) has argued most forcibly, women
throughout the Muslim world are positively identifying with Islamic values
and renouncing Western ones. This renunciation of Western values, how-
ever, does not imply a renunciation of feminism, if feminism is seen as the
promotion of women’s rights to self-expression and autonomy. As Kabbani
herself puts it, ‘Muslim feminists no longer choose to model themselves on
their Western sisters’, but in so doing they ‘are not withdrawing to an archaic
past, nor do they wish to stay demurely at home’ (1989, pp. 26-27).
Similarly, Simpson (1990) comments that in Tehran, working women pro-
claim that it is perfectly possible for feminism to flourish even when their
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adherence to strict Islamic dress might suggest that they are victims of
repression. He notes that the women he interviewed in Tehran were Islamic
feminists who ‘regarded their chandours as protection against the baser
instincts of men, shields which made it possible for them to walk down the
streets of cities on a basis of equality’(p. 24).
Our own previous research echoed these themes. The overwhelming
majority of our Muslim informants were proud of their cultural and religious
background. They did not feel that it detracted in serious or fundamental
ways from their educational and vocational aspirations. On the other hand,
such aspirations are not seen as being in any way separate from their own
immersion in their families and in their communities. With rare exceptions,
they seemed confident of their ability to find their own individual self-
expression within the framework of their families and communities.
In the research that we are now reporting, we wished to develop our
previous research by interviewing a sample of Muslim girls and comparing
their responses to those of a matched sample of girls from ethnic-majority
homes. We concentrated on four related areas. The first was whether or not
there was any evidence that Muslim girls were ‘over-aspirational’ in their
career aspirations. It has been suggested in the literature that pupils from
South Asian communities are more upwardly aspirational than their peers
and that their aspirations are often unrealistic in comparison to their abilities
(for a review of this research, see Taylor and Hegarty, 1985). Secondly, we
wanted to compare influences on career choice. Thirdly, we wanted to look
at when our respondents first started thinking about career choices. Finally,
we wanted to compare responses on a standard attitude-to-work scale.

Method
Sixty-nine female students were interviewed at two comprehensive schools,
37 from Muslim and 31 from ethnic-majority homes. One girl was a Nigerian
expatriate who was studying in Scotland: as she was a Christian, she was
included in the ethnic-majority sample. The girls were in the 4th, 5th and 6th
years and had been chosen by staff to represent a broad range of educational

British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 195

 ability. We also asked staff to choose girls who were thought to have come to
some decision about their futures. The students were interviewed on their
own. No names were taken and they were reassured that their own personal
responses would be non-identifiable.
The two schools concerned had been selected with two criteria in mind.
The first was the high proportion of ethnic-minority pupils; the second was
the relatively heterogeneous social mix. In addition, both schools are similar
in being situated in large cities and in being characterised by a commitment
to the principles of multi-culturalism and anti-racism. Other research car-
ried out in the schools had indicated that ethnic-minority pupils at both
schools regarded the staff and the ethos of the schools as generally suppor-
tive of their personal development (Siann et al., 1990).
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Interviews were structured and were based on the completion by the

interviewer of a standard interview package. As indicated above, the major
topics covered were career choices, the examinations for which students had
been entered, influences on career choices, and the stage at which career
decisions had been made.
Students also completed a standard attitude-to-work questionnaire. This
had been devised by Taylor (1975) and further developed by Kantas (1985).
This questionnaire has been designed to measure ‘orientations to work’.
These orientations were conceptualised as being different from job satisfac-
tion, occupational reference, and job involvement. Instead they were seen
as being concerned with what work means to young people about to enter
the job market or make career choices.
The scale consists of 32 attitudinal items. Responses are on a 5-point
Likert scale ranging from ‘I agree completely’ to ‘I disagree completely’.
Items concern issues such as: pragmatic considerations (e.g. ‘It is very
important that my pay allows for a high standard of living’ and ‘I want a job
that leaves me plenty of leisure’); personal satisfactions that work is seen to
provide (e.g. ‘I expect my job to provide the major satisfaction in my life’
and 1‘: is important that I feel my job is of real value to me and to society’);
the degree of commitment the respondent is prepared to put in (e.g. ‘I like a
job where you never have to flog yourself‘ and ‘I don’t mind giving up my
own time to get a job finished’); extrinsic factors influencing job choice (e.g.
‘I would like to work in the same line as others in my family’ and ‘I much
prefer to work in a well-established and respected organisation’); and
degree of autonomy desired (e.g. ‘I would like to work for somebody who
will encourage any amount of initiative’ and ‘I want to work where I have
lots of responsibility’).
Analysing the responses of young adults to the scale, Taylor (1975)
concluded that there were three factors underpinning orientations to work.
The first factor centred on a ‘responsible commitment’ to work, the second
on a ‘traditional’ approach to work, and the third on a ‘passive unconcerned’
approach. In a later study Kantas (1985) modified Taylor‘s factors. suggest-

196 Volume 20 No. 2, May 1992

 ing instead three factors centring on actualisation, calculation (a pragmatic
approach), and involvement.
In utilising this scale we were, of course, aware of the considerable
literature (Bhaget et al., 1990; Hofstede, 1980) relating to the difficulties
inherent in making cross-cultural comparisons in the area of occupational
psychology. These difficulties are largely associated with the indiscriminate
extrapolation from one culture to another of factors derived from attitudinal
measures. In the present study we have taken these difficulties into account
by comparing our two groups both on previous factors derived from the scale
we used and on factors extracted from a principal components analysis of
our own subjects’ responses to the scale.
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Results
Career aspirations. Respondents were asked what they planned to do when
they left school. These responses were not pre-categorised in any way. As
table 1 shows, some responded with careers, and some with indications of
going on to higher education. It can be seen that there is relatively little
evidence that Muslim girls’ career choices are more aspirational than their
peers in general, though rather more are likely to choose medicine and to a
lesser extent accountancy than are non-Muslim girls.
Because of our desire to preserve our respondents’ anonymity, we had no
direct check from staff as to whether these respondents were realistic. We
did, however, attempt an indirect check by asking our respondents what
examinations they were entered for. Checking these projected examinations
against entry requirements for the careers or higher education chosen, we
estimated the ‘match’ by grouping girls into two categories: ‘aspirations
realistic when compared to examinations to be set’, and ‘aspirations too

Table 1: Choice of career

Muslim girls Non-Muslim girls
(N=37) (N=32)
% %
Degree courses 20 28
Pharmacy 2 0
Medicine 20 3
Computer science 5 3
Accountancy 10 3
Journalismlart/design 8 16
Nursing 5 9
Teaching 2 3
Secretary 2 0
Nursery nurse 8 3
Beauticianhairdressedair hostess 8 9
Unskilled, e.g. shop assistant 5 9
No decision 5 13

British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 197

 high’. Comparing the two ethnic groups on this variable, there was no
evidence for Muslim ‘over-aspiration’ in that rather fewer (6%) of Muslim
girls’ aspirations were judged to be too high than were those of non-Muslims
(14%).
Influences on career choice. We investigated influences on career choice in
four ways. First, we asked our respondents to tell us what part their parents
played in their decision-making about careers. Second, we asked them if
they felt that their friends had influenced them in any way. Thirdly, we asked
them to complete a fifteen-item questionnaire. Finally, we asked them
where they had ‘first got the idea’ of the career choice they had made.
The responses to the first open-ended question were coded after the study
was carried out. Table 2 summarises these results. As can be seen, Muslim
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parents appeared more involved in the decision, but - contrary to stereotype

- a relatively small proportion (1 1% or 4 girls) reported that they were not
free to choose (as indeed did one ethnic-majority girl whose parents had
stopped her pursuing a career in computing).
Responses to the question concerning peer pressure indicated minimal
differences between the two groups: 33% of Muslim girls and 28% of non-
Muslim girls reported some influence.
In this part of the interview, the girls were also requested to complete a
short questionnaire which listed fifteen possible sources of influence on
career choice and asked them to respond on a 5-point scale ranging from
‘most important’ t o ‘not at all important’. The items covered a wide range
from ‘opportunities to travel’ to ‘improve lifestyle’. There were no signifi-

Table 2: Parents’ influences on career choice

Muslim girls Non-Muslim girls
(N=36) (N=32)
Yo

Parents interested in decision-making process but girl 28 37

totally free to choose

Girl free to choose but parents indicating preferences 47 19

Parents generally encouraging about careers but not 14 2s

directly involved in decision

Girl not free to choose I1 3

Parents not interested 0 6

~ -
100 loo
Note: A statistical test on these results indicated overall differences between the two groups
significant at the .05% level (x2 = 10.55).

198 Volume 20 No. 2, May 1992

 cant differences between the two groups on any items, except more Muslim
girls saying ‘my parents would like me to do this’ was important (x2 = 12.5,
p< .01) and more Muslim girls reporting ‘good pay’ was also important
(9= 8.74, p< .05). The significant difference on the first of these is hardly
surprising in view of the results reported in table 2; the significant difference
with respect to pay corresponded with the results of the attitude-to-work
scale which is reported below.
The final question concerning influenceson their career choice was ‘Could
you tell me where you got the idea (of your career choice) from?’. The
answers to this open-ended question were coded after the interviews, and
table 3 summarises the results.
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Table 3: Where the idea of career came from

Muslim girls Non-Muslim girls
(N=37) (N=32)
YO YO

Can’t rememberho decision 14 19

Open days 8 0
Always wanted to do this 16 16
Exam success in related subjects 22 31
Career advice in school 2 9
Career advice outside school 5 0
Work experience 8 13
Family 22 13
Media 2 0
- --
100 100

As can be seen, the pattern of responses between the two groups was, in
general, comparable. It is of interest, however, that more Muslim girls
reported their families as the source of the idea, and that there appeared to
be a tendency for rather fewer Muslim girls, compared to their peers, to cite
school sources (career advice at school, exam success).
When respondentsfirst started thinking about career choices. Respondents
were asked when they first became aware that they had to make some
decision about their future after they left school. Once again, answers to this
open-ended question were coded after the interviews. These responses
revealed that Muslim girls became aware of this rather later than their peers,
with 39% reporting such awareness later than the second year of secondary
school, compared to 25% of their peers (9 = 6.10, p<.05).
‘Miral’, for example, who was a prefect and was due to sit four Highers,
planned to be a primary school teacher. She said that she had really only
realised that she had to make a choice after sitting her 0-grades, and had
made her choice after a work placement. She said of this: ‘I made my choice

British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 199

 after 4th year. I liked working with children at the Play Scheme and I was
told I was good at it. So I decided then.’
Attitudes to work. As noted before, respondents filled out the standard
Attitude to Work Scale developed by Taylor (1975). Inspection of the
responses to the individual items indicated four items showing statistically
significant differences between the two groups. Two of these items centred
on ‘respectability’: ‘I much prefer to work with a well-established and
respected organisation’ (Muslim girls more likely to agree, x* = 19.8,
p<.OOl); and ‘It is important to be in a job which people respect’ (Muslim
girls more likely to agree, x2 = 13.5, p<.Ol). The other two items revealing
statistical differences between the two groups were concerned with con-
ditions of work: ‘I like a job where you never have to flog yourself‘ (Muslim
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girls more likely to agree, x2 = 15.8, p<.Ol); and ‘The only important thing
about a job is to work in pleasant surroundings with friendly people’
(Muslim girls more likely to agree, x* = 9.28, p<.05).
Following this item-by-item analysis, the two groups were compared on
the two typologies developed by Taylor (1975) and Kantas (1985). No
significant differences were revealed between the Muslim and non-Muslim
girls on either of these typologies. When a principal components analysis
was carried out on our own respondents’ responses, only two factors
contributed over 10% of the variance. The first of these (contributing 15.4%
of the variance) did not differentiate between the two groups. The second
factor, however, did. This factor contributed 12.0% of the variance, and was
loaded heavily on items concerned with pay, promotion and leisure time,
whilst having negative loadings on items concerned with the intrinsic interest
and value of the job. Muslim girls scored statistically significantly higher on
this factor than their peers (t = 2.08, pc.05); that is, they appeared to place
relatively more emphasis o n instrumental aspects of work.
These results point to two areas that have already been highlighted in the
earlier sections of this paper. The first of these centres on the importance to
Muslims of the ‘respectability’ of a job (see the introductory discussion);
while the second centres on a tendency for our Muslim respondents to place
relatively more importance on pay and other related benefits when thinking
about a job than do their peers (see also the results relating to the short
influences-on-work questionnaire). We would like to expand on these issues
in the next section.

Discussion
In this paper, we have been reporting on the third part of a research project.
The first two parts (Siann and Khalid, 1984; Siann et al., 1990) have shown
little evidence that the majority of British Muslim girls are likely to be
hindered in their choice of career by parental restrictions. Like other
researchers (Kitwood and Borrill, 1980; Stopes-Roe and Cochrane, 1984;
1988), we found little evidence for conflict between young Muslim people

200 Volume 20 No. 2, May 1942

 and their parents over important life issues. The present study reinforces
these overall impressions. The great majority of the Muslim girls we
interviewed reported both parental interest and support for their vocational
and career aspirations.
It is, however, important to note a qualification. As indicated in our last
study, there was some evidence from our general discussion of vocational
issues that parents and their daughters were not always acquainted with the
full range of vocational and training opportunities. To take a specific
example, a number of girls who indicated that they wanted to be doctors
were also aware that entry to medical schools was very competitive and that
consequently they might not gain admission. Their expressed reasons for
wanting to study medicine were, as in any career choice, not always very
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clearly articulated, but in most cases two threads were apparent: first, a
genuine interest in health issues; and second, a parental belief that medicine
was a highly desirable and respected profession. When we asked our
respondents about the possibility of their transferring this aspiration to other
health professions, it was obvious that there was considerable ignorance on
the part of these girls and that both the girls and their parents had little
knowledge of any paramedical careers other than pharmacy. Most of our
Muslim respondents’ parents had themselves been educated in Pakistan
and, working as most of them did in commerce, had little opportunity to
become aware of the full range of paramedical opportunities that their
daughters could aspire to. The implications, as we have noted before, are
clear. We believe that there is considerable scope for more information to be
disseminated to Muslim parents.
Turning away from these general issues to the specific issues we investi-
gated, we found in general relatively few differences between our two
groups of respondents. With respect to career aspirations, as table 1
indicated, Muslim girls did not have relatively higher career aspirations than
their peers. While the majority of both groups were aiming for professional
careers, similar numbers of both groups indicated interest in non-
professional qualifications, such as nursery nurse, shop assistants, etc.
Similarly, using our admittedly rather suspect index of realism, there were
no inter-group differences indicating ‘over-aspiration’ by Muslim girls.
The second issue we investigated - influences on career choice - also
revealed minimal inter-group differences. There was some indication, both
in the answer to specific questions and in general discussion, that Muslim
parents were more actively interested in their daughters’ careers, but - as in
previous studies - our Muslim respondents did not experience this as
unwanted pressure. We also gained the impression, reinforced by the
responses summarised in table 3, that Muslim girls obtained rather more
information from outside school sources than their peers, but we would
stress that the evidence for this is suggestive rather than conclusive.

British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 201

 Another area where differences were shown, based both on the answers
to the specific question and on general discussion, was that concerning the
number of Muslim girls who, as compared to their peers, started thinking
about career choice somewhat later. This finding may be related to the
relative lack of information about careers available to families where the
parents themselves were educated in a different system and in a different
country.
The most interesting of our findings in this study concerned attitudes to
work. We would like to focus in particular on the kinds of satisfaction that our
respondents expected work to supply. As indicated in the preceding section.
the results both of the short questionnaire and of the comparison of factors
produced from the responses to the attitude-to-work questionnaire indicated a
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somewhat greater emphasis on the part of our Muslim respondents on instru-

mental aspects of work satisfaction. It should be noted, however, that this
tendency was certainly not marked in general discussion. Furthermore, it was
by no means consistent, in that statistical differences between the two groups
were shown on only two of the fifteen statements on the attitude-to-work
questionnaire which dealt with instrumental or expressive values.
Nevertheless, we believe there is some suggestion in these data that, as a
group, our Muslim subjects tended to be more likely to aspire to well-paid
jobs with congenial colleagues in reputable organisations than to aspire to
jobs that offered opportunities for self-development. We would stress that
this conclusion is suggestive only, based as it is largely on the results of the
factor analysis. We do not believe that it is necessarily possible to generalise
outside our own sample, and it certainly needs to be replicated.
We do believe, however, that this very preliminary finding resonates with
conclusions that we have discussed elsewhere (Siann and Ugwuegbu, 1988)
which are concerned with the extent to which the cultural perceptions and
values affect and even determine how self is experienced in different
cultures. Arguing with Marsella el al. (1985) that the concepts of self and
self-esteem represent one of the important instruments we have for under-
standing others, we have pointed out (see also Stewart, 1985) that people in
the West tend to place relatively more emphasis on aspects of individual self-
enhancement and self-expression than d o non-Westerners. As Johnson puts
it: ‘From a comparative standpoint the experience of individualism is
acknowledged to be psychologically more prominent in Western persons
than among model representatives from Eastern communities’ (1985, p.
119). More specifically, Bharati (1985) has pointed out that if you ask
Westerners to identify themselves, they will do so primarily with reference
to their occupations or skills; Indians, on the other hand, will cite village or
caste.
Turning to the present study, we would argue that, as a group. our Muslim
subjects were, as we have indicated above, relatively more inclined to value
work that their family and community would see as of high status, and were

202 Volume 20 No. 2, May 1992

 relatively less likely to value jobs that primarily offered opportunities for
self-expression and self-enhancement. We are not claiming that Muslim girls
are not interested in self-enhancement and self-expression, nor that they
lack ambition. Instead, referring back to the issues discussed in the introduc-
tion to this paper, we would suggest that one of the major determinants of
their sense of self-worth and self-esteem is the extent to which they contrib-
ute to their family’s standing in the community. Consequently, they will seek
careers that are concordant with this.
As noted above, there was some evidence that our Muslim sample placed
rather more emphasis on good pay than did their peers. We would suggest
two possible reasons. First, as with other immigrant communities, there is
considerable pressure to establish a secure financial base. Secondly, high
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remuneration tends to enhance social status and this, as we have indicated

above, would be seen as very desirable for our respondents.
We should, however, caution again that the differences in attitudes to
work between our two samples are suggestive only. In view of the problems
associated with cross-cultural comparisons (Bhaget et al., 1990), we would
suggest that, without further replication, it would be inadvisable to gen-
eralise these differences. Our main findings are, however, clear-cut. These
are that young Muslim women in Scotland are as interested as their peers in
careers and higher education, and that there is no indication that compared
to their peers their choices are ‘over-aspirational’. Furthermore, they regard
their parents as interested and supportive, and indicate that there are very
few occupations which their parents would not sanction. As we noted in
other phases of this study, it is vital that schools and vocational advisers take
cognizance of this.

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The authors would like to record their thanks to the headteachers and staff of
the schools in which the study was conducted. They would also like to record
their gratitude to the pupils who took part in the study, for their co-operation
and assistance.

Received 14 September 1990; final revisions received 13 May 1991.

Correspondence should be addressed to: Dr G . Siann, Department of

Psychology, Glasgow Polytechnic, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow G4 OBA.

204 Volume 20 No. 2, May 1992