Self-concept and educational aspirations of married women college graduates1968

This study investigated the factors related to the educational aspirations of college-educated women who were themselves, or who were married to, Harvard graduate students. In January, 1968, a questionnaire was mailed to 2,393 Harvard graduate students' wives and 355 married women enrolled as graduate students at Harvard University. The return rates were 65% for the wives of graduate students, and 79% for the married women graduate students. The 52-page Life Plans Questionnaire assessed educational aspiration; self-esteem; female role ideology; generalized conception of academic ability; self-assessment of graduate school potential; recalled perceptions of adolescent family relations; high school teachers', high school peers', college instructors', and college peers' evaluation of respondent's academic ability; competence and satisfaction in three major role areas: wife, housekeeper, and mother; orientation to mode of achievement satisfaction; socioeconomic status and occupation; maternal employment; adolescent loneliness; stability of self-concept; and college experience. All paper and computer-accessible data are available at the Murray Center.