The Situation of Women in Technical Professions in the Federal Republic of Germany

In West Germany, women have traditionally worked in a very restricted range of jobs, with skilled women workers being concentrated in administrative and service sector employment. The article reviews the reasons for this situation and the initiatives which have been taken to increase the proportion of women in jobs traditionally undertaken by men, including technical jobs at all levels. The Federal Government supported by the Lander (West German States) has introduced a number of projects across the country to train more young women in non-traditional vocational areas, especially in the mechanical and electronic/electrical engineering fields with a view to producing skilled craft workers and technicians. The difficulties faced by young women who have taken up such training, both during the training period and when seeking work subsequently are discussed

The situation for women engineers at the professional level is also outlined and a number of strategies which may be helpful in improving the position of women in engineering in the Federal Republic is outlined. Recently, computer courses organised by women's groups have proved successful in attracting women students from a wide variety of backgrounds and age ranges with little or no previous technical or scientific training.     

Supervision of Counselors-in-Training Working With Clients With HIV

To assist counselors who are supervising students working with clients infected with HIV, this article uses Loganbill, Hardy, and Delworth's (1982) framework to highlight important issues that counselors-in-training are likely to face.     

Environmental Issues in the Museum: Applying Public Perceptions in Exhibition Development

This paper describes an exhibition on radiation* and the environment. In the exhibition-development process, students' and lay people's conceptions on radiation issues as described in the literature were considered. How these conceptions and the theoretical frame of constructivism may guide exhibition development is discussed. Whether an exhibition of this kind can facilitate cognitive change and aid personal judgment in environmental matters is considered on the basis of data from 16-year-olds' use of the exhibition.     

Fighting Boys and Fantasy Play: The construction of masculinity in the early years of school

Using a post-structural framework, the paper analyses the dynamics of the process by which little boys adopt a definition of masculinity as avoiding whatever is done by girls. It is argued that this is a response to the fact that the 'fighting boys' who resist the school's demands have appropriated the role of hero in the warrior narratives of little boys' fantasy games, casting the 'good boys' who conform to the requirements of the school as despised 'wimps' and 'sissies'. This leads the 'good boys' to adopt an alternative definition of masculinity as 'not female', and in many cases leads also to the scorn and rejection being redirected to girls as a group. It is suggested that teachers should intervene in this cycle by explicitly discussing the character of the hero in these warrior narratives and showing that it ought not to be equated with the classroom and playground behaviour of the 'fighting boys'.     

Essential Characteristics of Master's Level Counselors: Perceptions of Agency Administrators

The purpose of this study was to determine to what degree the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) standards represent skills and knowledge that mental health agency employers use to judge candidates for master's level counseling positions. A total of 84 professionals who hired master's level counselors in their agencies rated the likely effect of each CACREP knowledge and skill area on their judgment of a potential candidate. Respondents also checked specific knowledge and skills they considered important and the type(s) of master's degrees typically possessed by counselors hired by their agency. Data suggested that each knowledge and skill area may have a moderate to significant impact on the employers' judgments, although some competencies were clearly seen to be more relevant than others. Family intervention was the most highly endorsed specialization, and candidates with social work degrees were hired far more frequently than was any other single type. Implications for counselor education programs and graduates are discussed.     

An Attributional Approach to Counselor Supervision

The supervision process is examined from an attributional perspective. Counselor supervision is conceptualized as an interactional process in which trainees learn to describe and manage cause-effect relationships. Attribution theory from the social psychological literature is reviewed, and common biases and errors in the attribution process are discussed in terms of their relationship to supervision. Finally, several interventions are proposed to help supervisors minimize the influence of these attributional biases on their own and their trainees' perceptions and behaviors.     

Women in Engineering in the Netherlands

This paper discusses the situation of women who study engineering in the Netherlands. Quantitative data expressing the underrepresentation of women in engineering is presented against the background of some characteristics of the Dutch society. Next we consider the position of the women who did enter a technical university. Their drop-out rates are compared with those of men. Drawing on the results of our qualitative interviews, we sketch a picture of factors and processes which influence the course of their study. It is argued that the social intergration of women affects the way they deal with the two dominant questions ‘can I do it’ and ‘do I want this’.     

A Multidimensional Approach to Understanding College Writing Processes

The aims of this study were to confirm the factor structure of college writing processes as measured by the Inventory of College Composition, and to test for a second-order, deep and surface structure, as suggested in the literature on college learning and writing. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the dimensionality of the model based on the responses of 517 undergraduate students enrolled in general education courses. Results support the construct validity of the original model, as well as binary second-order factors, reflective of the deep and surface processes. Conclusions address the nature of the interrelationships of writing processes, and suggestions for instruction.