Chapter 7

It is commonly known that women and minorities will have difficulties that others may not in all facets of life. Whether is the discrimination that comes along with being a female or a minority or other reasons, difficulties will always arise. Reading chapter 7 in Career Information, Career Counseling, and Career Development by Duane Brown confirmed this knowledge. I already knew that women make around 30% less then men doing the same job. To make matters worse, more women have gone through the higher education system then compared to men since 1982. Women are now more educated in general than men (Brown, 2016). These statistics shows how women are viewed in the workplace. Not only this, the path to get the career that they are perusing is riddled with problems and hardships that women must face. Tradition and sex-role stereotyping have persuaded women to stay away from STEM positions for years (Brown, 2016). I have noticed more women today are striving for STEM positions compared to women in the past. It has become more acceptable in today’s age for women to work in these positions. This does not mean that women do not face problems on their path to achieve these careers.

I thought it was extremely important that Brown stated the two types of obligations that career counselors must do on the job. These being to make the clients aware of what lies ahead in the work environment and help them develop coping skills to deal with eventualities that they may encounter, and to assert ourselves to ameliorate oppressive forces in organizations, communities, families, and work to repeal policies that brought about wage inequity, whether it be for women or any other group (Brown, 2016). All clients attempting to pursue an ideal career will face hardships; however, some will face more hardships than others. It is the duty of the career counselor to prepare their clients for the hardships to come and help them cope with what they will face in the future. Even though society is on the path of equality for women and minorities in the workplace, there still is a long way to go to reach this goal. The stereotype will always be there and whether it is intentional or not, men and those in the majority will always get the upper hand when it comes to career placement. It is the job of the career counselor to do what he/she can to help bridge the gap in the workplace.

I have noticed that previous theories that we have read as a class have major implications with women and minorities. More research needs to be done to include these groups of society and allow them to have an equal strategy for career development. The equality of women, sexual orientation minorities, and other minorities is getting closer to becoming more acceptable; however, new techniques to help improve the situation should be a top priority in the field of career development. It is the job of a career counselor to help anyone who walks in their office succeed, and everyone deserves the same chance. This includes these oppressed groups of minorities.

Brown, D. (2016). Career Information, Career Counseling, and Career Development (11^th ed.). New York: Pearson.