Record Details

Life Patterns and Choices: A Survey of Graduates from Radcliffe College/Harvard University and Newnham College, University of Cambridge

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Title Life Patterns and Choices: A Survey of Graduates from Radcliffe College/Harvard University and Newnham College, University of Cambridge
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/7E2KHX
 
Creator Brett, Belle
Elliott, Jane
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description The Life Patterns and Choices Study was a cross-national, cross-cohort
study on the life patterns and experiences of well-educated women
conducted by Belle Brett, Ed.D. and Jane Elliott, Ph.D.



In 2003, a 15 page questionnaire was mailed to all US resident graduates
of the Radcliffe Classes of 1969 and 1979(n=752) as well as equivalent
cohorts from Newnham College,Cambridge University, in England (N=363).
(In addition, the responses from the Radcliffe Class of 1969 were
intended to be the third wave of a previous two-wave study conducted by
Belle Brett in 1979 and 1990 (The Radcliffe Class of 1969: A Survey of
Life Patterns, Choices, and Beliefs, also held by the Henry A. Murray
Center Research Archive).



The purpose of this study was to find out if there were differences both
between cohorts that were ten years apart and between women from the
U.S. and Great Britain in terms of their work patterns and choices,
marital patterns and choices, other life activities, and attitudes and
beliefs around work, family, and women’s rights. The linkages among
these areas was also of interest.




The questionnaire contained 12 parts: 1) Overview, 2)Your Type of Work,
3) Your Day-to-Day Activities, 4) Career/Working Life, 5)Work patterns
since leaving college, 6)Your Current Paid Work, 7)Spouses and partners,
8)Children,9)Plans and Hopes for the Future/Wishes for the Past,
10)Attitudes and Beliefs, 11)Other Personal Data, and 12)Comments.
Questions were multiple choice, short answer, and essay type. Short
answer questions were coded as were some of the essay type questions.



Overall response rate was 58% (n=642), 51% for the Radcliffe sample and
71% for the Newnham sample. (Among the Radcliffe Class of 1969 sample
who had participated in the 1990 study, 77% returned questionnaires.)



Raw data as well as numerical data are available for the two Radcliffe
cohorts, but only numerical data are available for the two Newnham
College cohorts.
 
Subject Social Sciences
 
Contributor Barbosa, Sonia
 
Relation Belle Brett, 2007, "Radcliffe Class of 1969", hdl:1902.1/01027, Harvard Dataverse, V2