‘I'd hate to be just a housewife’: Career aspirations of British Muslim girls

Abstract

The career hopes of, and the career guidance provided to, a group of adolescent Muslim girls are analysed. In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 British Asian Muslim girls in the final year of compulsory schooling at three schools, with their parents and with 18 of their teachers. The findings indicate British Muslims' ardent desire for upward social mobility through the routes of education and careers, point to the role of negotiation and persuasion in career choices, and caution against stereotyping ethnic-minority groups.