( 2 ) Prime Target Groups

One of the most important finding of this study is that the age of the respondent is correlated with attitudes toward non-traditional work and that younger respondents are more positive in their attitudes than older ones.

In fact, as age of respondents increased, positive attitudes decreased. Thus, girls and teen-age women are prime groups for a communication campaign as they are more easily persuaded to consider non-traditional employment.

Education about how interesting non-traditional jobs are should start at an early age, well before puberty. Since the change from positive to negative attitudes is most marked between 11 and 12 years of age, the communications effort should be increased and strengthened at this critical time.

A further benefit of this extra effort is that it will reach girls and young women before they have closed off future career options by eliminating their math and science studies.

As with adult women with low educational attainment, extra effort should also be focused on young women who do not expect to go to university, since these young women are less favorably disposed toward non-traditional work.

(3) Effective Communication Channels

Role models are important to girls and teen-age women, as they are to adult women. Thus, from an early age and throughout the adolescent years, girls should see women in the widest possible variety of occupations, in order to:

• ensure that girls and teen-age women are made aware of the diversity
  of available career options;
• ensure that they consider these career as viable options for themselves;
• demonstrate that women are capable of doing every possible type of job.

Role models for girls and teen-age women will likely be more persuasive if they are somewhat glamorous and exciting (i.e., more idealistic than realistic). In addition, since teens are more responsive to their peers, the role models should be close to them in age.

It is important not to introduce non-traditional work to teen-age women as a separate entity, since they do not select a job on the basis of whether or not it is non-traditional. Further, the more traditional teen-age women may reject it for this reason.

Rather, as with adult women, this introduction should be an essential and integrated component of all career planning events and classes that take place in school.

Whenever possible, these career planning events should include an opportunity to gain some hands-on experience with the technology/equipment/implements used in various types of non-traditional work. Again, as with adult women, this kind of experience heightens interest, improves perceptions of capability and promotes understanding of some of the tasks involved in non-traditional work.

Finally, the school curriculum itself can be an effective communication channel. Specifically, math, science and technical trades can be introduced in ways that relate to girls' interests. This will help to maintain girls' interest in those areas, which in turn, will motivate them to choose careers into these fields.