This research studied the social and professional experience of a group of 82 women born between 1940 and 1950, coming from high income groups from São Paulo city, all ex-students of three Catholic women's colleges. The main objective was to identify and compare the forms of socialization to which they were exposed in their socioprofessional training. Research methodology included fieldwork, questionnaires and biographical interviews with former lecturers, school directors and past students. The study's findings enabled a better understanding of the mechanisms through which socialization processes determine the different dispositions characterizing the former students of a particular teaching system. They also helped show how the outcomes of this 'primary' socialization interact with later experiences, modifying, reconstituting or reproducing past social patterns and expectations.
Elite families; Private school; Women's professionalization
