Teen Girls on Business - Simmons College

<strong>Teen</strong> <strong>Girls</strong> on Business: Are They Being Empowered?Moms, Your Daughters Really Are Listening!Our study indicated that parents, especially mothers, arethe primary source of career advice and influence for teengirls. Nearly 70% list their moms as someone they wouldgo to for career advice—the highest personal source by far.Other research 36 supports this finding, which shows thatgirls are strongly influenced in career and life aspirationsboth by what their moms do, and what they say. This isespecially true for girls who live in single-parent households,and for some subgroups. 37 The bottom line is thatmoms do count, and count a lot. So what are girls hearingfrom their moms?<strong>Girls</strong> are hearing that financial independence and securitymatter. That’s a good thing! Moms are encouraging them tobe ambitious and to get a good education. In focus groups,moms understood that the uncertainties of modern lifemade it more important than ever for their daughters to beable to support themselves.But what moms in our study cared most about was thattheir daughters be happy and fulfilled. They do not wantthem to choose a career too soon. And they want them tokeep their options open and ultimately choose a path aboutwhich they are passionate. Daughters know this is howtheir moms feel. Over one-third of the girls in our study,when asked what their parents wanted them to do, replied“anything that makes me happy.” And girls certainly sharethis goal. A whopping 96% said that “enjoying what I do” isextremely or very important in a career!Even though the direct message from moms may be general,the indirect messages are not. What a mother choseto do with her life had a strong impact. Perhaps becausethey were seen as more informed sources of advice, girlswere significantly more likely to say they would seek theadvice of their mothers who worked outside the home in professionaljobs. And, in focus groups, girls spoke often abouthow what their moms did affected their career choices, bothpositively and negatively. Some girls spoke about wantingto follow in their moms’ footsteps, quite literally aspiring tohave the same career. But some were negative, with girlssaying they did not want to end up like their moms, in jobsthat were too stressful, or perhaps in dead-end jobs withfew rewards.The stress of having a career and a family was frequentlydiscussed in our focus groups. Some moms expressed thehope that their daughters would choose careers with flexibility,so they could more easily balance having childrenwith working. Daughters too spoke about how moms inhigh-pressure jobs had little time for their families, and howthey hoped never to be in that position. At the same time,however, some daughters said they could not imagine makingthe same decision as their stay-at-home moms. And,survey results indicated that most girls did indeed expect tohave full time jobs.How about moms with business careers? Interestingly,moms and dads with careers in business were more likelyto be seen as a source of career advice by their daughtersthan parents in other professions. However, parents, eventhose who work in business, feel ill equipped to talk to theirchildren about business careers.In focus groups parents told us how hard it is to explainexactly what it is a businessperson does. They told us howhard it is to have their daughters understand their jobbecause so much of the work is intangible and invisible.As with girls themselves, it seems as if we need to give parents,and especially moms, a new definition of business.We need to give them the tools to more accurately and richlydescribe the excitement of business and the skills neededto succeed.“I would hope that she finds something that she’spassionate about . . . that she finds something thatshe could be flexible so that like me . . . when itcomes time to having babies, (she) can go part-time.”-Mother3636Mickelson RA, Velasco AE. Mothers and Daughters Go to Work: The Relationship of Mothers’Occupations to Daughters’ Career Aspirations. National Science Foundation. Arlington, VA; 1998.37Kerpelman JL, Shoeffner MF, Ross-Griffin S. African American Mothers’ and Daughters’ Beliefs AboutPossible Selves and Their Strategies for Reaching the Adolescents’ Future Academic and Career Goals.Journal of Youth and Adolescence. August 2002:289-303.