| Many women with mental retardation would like to participate in the labor force but barely twenty percent have stable jobs (The ARC, 1994; Traustadottir, 1990; Imel, 1994). The researcher used a qualitative approach to learn more about the employment problems of women with mental retardation. She asked seven women with this disability open-ended questions (Merriam, 1988) about their experiences to discover their interpretations of employment. The researcher recorded the women's interpretations on tape; then, she transcribed the tapes.;The researcher read through the interview transcripts and made note of common themes she found in the data (Merriam, 1988). After she had read all the transcripts several times she determined that the women had four basic concerns: (1) The women wanted to work more. (2) The women wanted their co-workers to treat them better. (3) The women wanted to have better working conditions. (4) The women wanted to have different jobs.;The women's concerns were presented in a narrative fashion (Bogden & Biklen, 1992) in the final case report. Specialists can read the report to gain insight about the vocational needs of women with mental retardation (Boone, 1985).;The researcher concluded that women with mental retardation might feel more content about their employment situations if they talked to their supervisors about their concerns. The researcher suggested that specialists periodically help women to express their concerns to their supervisors. |
