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Selves, Careers, And Relationships Of Never Married Women, Cynthia Sue Burnley

Doctoral Dissertations

The symbolic interactionist perspective provided the general theoretical basis for this exploratory study of the selves, careers, and relationships of never married women. The life careers of adults who are not married were investigated in order to fill a gap in the literature on adult life and to explore the utility of the symbolic interactionist conceptualization of career.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 never married women between the ages of 30-40. They were selected through a process of snowball sampling. A semi-structured interview guide was developed for the study.

Individuals have multiple careers with various dimensions (e.g., occupational, familial). …