out of the labor force, or alternate periods of more or less intensive
work in response to the needs of their children and families. Some
return to full-time schooling in midlife to obtain higher educational
degrees and to prepare themselves for new occupational pursuits.
These trends mean that vocational development is more
extended and perhaps more indeterminate than in previous histor-
ical periods. Policy implications may therefore be fruitfully consid-
ered by phase of the life course, as vocational development may
increasingly come to be a lifelong phenomenon.
With respect to the period of adolescence, we have noted many
students’ general lack of interest in thinking about their adult oc-
cupational choices. Moreover, youths’ difficulties in making the
school-to-work transition have been increasingly recognized and
linked to the absence of institutional bridges. The School-to-Work
Opportunity Act was set forth to find ways to remedy this situation
through stronger connections between schools and workplaces,
opportunities for young people to pursue internships in work or-
ganizations of their choice, high school–based enterprises, and so
forth (Borman, Cookson, Sadovnik, & Spade, 1996). We have
argued elsewhere (Mortimer & Johnson, 1998), however, that
schools have not yet taken full advantage of the fact that most
teenagers are, in fact, in the labor market. Much more could be done
to integrate their experiences in the workplace and in school. For
example, young people might be encouraged to discuss the rewards
and challenges, as well as the problems that they encounter on their
jobs, to increase awareness of the various opportunities that are pres-
ent in the workplace. They might be offered the opportunity to write
about their experiences at work in their term papers and other
school assignments, to reflect, especially, on what they like and dis-
like about their jobs, so as to become increasingly aware of their own
vocationally relevant interests, preferences, and abilities.
In adulthood, a major obstacle to vocational achievement is the
need to simultaneously care for children and household while pur-
suing a career. The burden of family work has, up to this point,
fallen most heavily on women. Coordinating work and family roles,
A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 65