A Cross-Cultural Comparison of American, Israeli and Greek Women Pursuing Technical and Scientific Careers.

The article reports on a cross-cultural comparison of American, Israeli and Greek women pursuing technical and scientific careers. The American data were collected by mail during 1985/6 from active members of the Society of Women Engineers and the MIT Alumni Association--all living in the Boston area. The Israeli participants were approached during 1987/8 via the personnel departments in a variety of organizations throughout the country by means of university Alumni mailing lists and by a "call for volunteers" advertised in professional magazines. The collection of the Greek data began in 1989 and is still going on. Participants are being drawn from the large population of active members of the Technical Chamber of Greece, in the greater area of Athens. The women in the American sample, in comparison to the other groups, have less children and a higher percentage of them hold high-level jobs, including management, which in US ideology is the 'success' position. In contrast to the Greek and the Israeli women, these U.S. professionals seem to compete some-what more successfully in the work arena, but at the expense of the family.