Presents the results of case studies, involving unstructured interviews with 69 women in two clerical training programs. Explores the students' perceptions of the nature of clerical work, emphasizing the importance of social constructs in determining the rewards, conditions, and power that accrue to a particular occupation. (DMM)

Working-class high school girls choose courses for a variety of reasons, both consciously and subconsciously, and use conventional attitudes to justify their choices to themselves and others, according to working-class girls who volunteered to be interviewed during their free periods in Vancouver (British Columbia) high schools. The girls cited…