Table of contents

1.  Women s self-concept during adolescence 3  

1.1  NA  

  Physical Self-concept 4  

1.2  NA  

  Satisfaction with gender 4  

1.3  NA  

  Ethnic  Identity 4

1.4  NA  

  Competence and self-esteem 4  

2.  Interpersonal relationships during adolescence 4  

2.1  NA  

  Emotional aspects of relationships 5  

2.2  NA  

  Family 5 NA  

2.3  NA  

  Female peers male peers and heterosexual relationships and lesbian  

  relationships  5

3.  Education and Career planning 6  

3.1  Career Counselors 6  

3.2  Higher education 6  

3.3  The academic environment 7  

4.  Career Aspirations 7  

5.  References 8  

1.  NA  

  Women s self-concept during adolescence  

  Adolescent females are aware of major changes in the features and shapes of their  

  bodies and they also experience a major transition when they reach menarche  

  Furthermore they mostly enter into a different school system When they enter junior  

  high school there is no gender segregation like in elementary school and it is more  

  impersonal Thus a major challenge for adolescents is to establish a self-concept o r  

  sense of identity Whereas the self-concept of a child focuses on concrete  

  descriptions the self-concept of an adolescent is likely more abstract self-portrait that  

  focuses on personal and interpersonal characteristics (Harter 1990) Components of  

  this self-concept include physical self-concept satisfaction with gender ethnic  

  identity and competence and self-esteem  

3  NA  

1.1 Physical Self-concept Attractiveness is more important for preschool girls than for preschool boys. The same emphasis on attractive ness for females continues throughout childhood and adolescence. Young women always receive the message that this is important for them. They should not be to fat, their skin must be clear, their hair has to be nice and long. Their self-concept is shaped b y whether they are attractive. To look like a ‘model’ a lot of women begin to starve themselves, getting decease like anorexia nervosa, as well because of our culture’s emphasis on thinness. The focus on white models in media can create conflict for some women of color, but other women of color may be able to ignore those media images.

1.2 Satisfaction with gender Lewin & Tragos (1987) did a study on ‘how do females feel about their gender?’. Here, females were significantly happier with their gender in the 1980’s than during the 1950’s. This could be an interesting point for further studies to find out the factors, why are women in the 80’s more satisfied.

1.3 Ethnic Identity Girls have stronger ethnic identity than boys do. Unfortunately, no clear gender differences in ethnic identity emerge during adolescence.

1.4 Competence and self-esteem Gender differences in self-esteem are inconsistent. Some studies report differences, but others do not. However, males and females who are high in masculinity are generally high in their self-esteem. In contrast, femininity is unrelated to self-esteem in adolescence. For many young women, the pressure to be pretty and popular my encourage them to hide their intelligence and competence. Girls who have frequent contact with boyfriends, or with friends in general, are likely to be lower in academic competence.

2. Interpersonal relationships during adolescence

First there is an exploration of the emotional aspects of relationships, then there are examined the four groups with whom adolescent females have important relationships: family, female peers, male peers, and lesbian relationships.

2.1 Emotional aspects of relationships Adolescent women often emphasize their emotional reactions when they interact with others. They are more likely than adolescent men to report being self-conscious. Furthermore adolescent females are also more likely than adolescent males to say that they become very upset if someone gets angry with them, and that their feelings are hurt very easily. Moreover, females are more likely than males to say that they are nice to people they don’t like, thus they are more responsive to negative behaviors from others. Perhaps females are more concerned about the possibility that someone won’t like them, so they inspect others’ behavior for subtle negative signs. Males may fail to notice negative signs unless they are fairly obvious.

2.2 Family Adolescent women generally get along well with their families, and they report some intimacy with their parents. They may disagree on relatively minor issues such as music and clothes, but they agree on more substantive matters such as religion, politics, education, and social values. The majority of young women identified their mothers as the most important people in their lives. Furthermore mothers know their friends, which also shows, that they keep in touch with an important social component of their adolescents’ lives. Ethnic differences in young women’s relationships with their families have also been reported.

2.3 Female peers, male peers and heterosexual relationships, and lesbian relationships Adolescent women, compared to adolescent men, show a higher level of intimacy with their best same-gender friends. Adolescent women report higher level of intimacy with a romantic partner than adolescent men do. Research on southern college women showed that they devoted large amounts of time to the pursuit of romance. For adolescents who are beginning to identify themselves as lesbians, the media and their peers do not offer positive images.

All in all relationships are very important in adolescents’ lives. They even would brake school rules to help their friends. These young women emphasized the importance of communication with their friends. When asked to identify the worst