Cultural Issues in Career Counseling

A helping process that places the emphasis for counseling theory and practice equally on the cultural impression of both the counselor and the client (Axelson 1985)
A "meta-theoretical approach that recognizes that all helping methods ultimately exist within a cultural context." (Ivey 1997)

Power, privilege, and oppression in terms of . . . . Race/Ethnicity, Gender/Identity Ability status/ Age/Sexual Identity/ SES/ Level of Education /Language /Nationality/Regionality/Weight/Height/ Class, etc.

-Average age of workforce will rise while the pool of young workers will decrease.-More women will enter workforce.-Minorities will make up a larger share of the new entrants into the workforce. -Immigrants will make up the largest share of increase in the population and workforce since WWII

-Unemployment rate for African Americans has been above 11% each year since 1978 (2 and 1/ 2 times the rate of Whites.)-African American and Hispanic families earn approximately 60% of the income of white, non-Hispanic families

-More than 1/2 of employed Hispanic women are clerical workers or operatives.-Poverty rate of Native Americans is twice (23.7%) that of the general population & unemployment rate is 45% for those living on reservations. -Men are 18.7 times as likely to in higher prestige occupations in science, math, or technology than women.-Only 33.6% of persons with disabilities are in the workforce.

-Individualism and autonomyCompetition ensure opportunity-Affluence-Opportunity open to all-Centrality of work in people's lives-Linearity and rationality of the career development process-Diligence is valued (work ethic)

Etic and Emic

Maintain that career interventions for members of minority groups should be the same as those used for the majority.

Highlight the importance of offering career development interventions that are specific to the client's culture.

-process of adopting the cultural traits or social patterns of another group (Stein 1975)

Language familiarity & usagecultural heritageethnicityethnic pride and identityinterethnic interactionsinterethnic distance

Not accepting either culture fully

Accepting both cultures fully

Stereotypically reinforce competition and skill mastery in boys & relationships and connectedness in girls
-affect initial selection of occupation and opportunities for mentoring and promotion

-Dealing with attending to needs of others-Learning to negotiate in the workplace-Accessing quality child care-Handling sexual harassment in the workplace-Accessing mentors