Does More Mean Less?: Interest Surplus and the Gender Gap in STEM Careers

Cardador, M. Teresa; Damian, Rodica Ioana; Wiegand, Justin P.

doi:10.1177/1069072720930658

Cited by 20 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Existing theories of interests and career outcomes do not offer predictions about gender moderation effects (Holland, 1997;Su et al, 2018). Nonetheless, interests may, in some cases, predict career outcomes differently depending on one's gender (Cardador et al, 2020). For example, if women are expected to have lower realistic interests due to societal gender norms, realistic interests might have less of an impact on women's career and educational choices compared to men.…”

Section: Gender Differences and Crystallized Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Adolescent vocational interests predict early career success: Two 12‐year longitudinal studies

et al. 2021

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Vocational interests are relatively stable individual differences that can change across the lifespan. However, little is known about the importance of interest changes, relative to stable interest levels, for predicting career outcomes.This study assessed the long-term predictive power of adolescent interest levels and interest growth for five career outcomes: degree attainment, occupational prestige, income, and career-and job-satisfaction. The study used two 12-year longitudinal samples (N 1 = 485; N 2 = 1290) with vocational interests measured across multiple waves from late adolescence to young adulthood. Results from both samples converged on three key findings. First, adolescents who showed better interest fit with their eventual vocation were more satisfied with their jobs over a decade later.Second, adolescent interests predicted objective career outcomes (i.e. degree attainment, occupational prestige, and income), revealing that early interests shaped educational and career choices. Third, interest changes were typically not associated with career outcomes, indicating that adolescent interest levels played a larger role. Together, these findings highlight the critical importance of childhood and adolescent interest development for guiding career trajectories and outcomes. We discuss implications for interest development theories, educational policies, and applied interventions.

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Section: Gender Differences and Crystallized Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Adolescent vocational interests predict early career success: Two 12‐year longitudinal studies

et al. 2021

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“…Peer groups that support, advocate for, or model outstanding math and scientific performance are more likely to enrol in more math courses, have higher math and science excitement, and see themselves as future scientists [13][14][15][16][17]. While there is a continuous relationship between interaction among peers and girls' mathematical and scientific activities and attitudes in general, there is a somewhat greater connection between peers' interaction and girls' science and math activities and attitudes in particular [28][29][30][31][32]. In other words, since gender stereotypes are prominent in STEM areas, females may be more vulnerable to peer social pressures, that may prove to be damaging if compeers do not support scientific and mathematical aspirations of girls.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Though this investigation was unable to show how these beliefs lead to discriminatory action, it does indicate that assumptions and unconscious prejudices affect women's interest in science. It's been shown, for example, that so called masculine academic disciplines like computational sciences may discourage women because of deficiency in belonging and apparent resemblance, and that eliminating stereotypic masculinist things from computational engineering courses can truly upsurge women's curiosity in such mathematically intensive STEM subjects [31][32][33][34][35]. While there is no compelling evidence of covert discrimination in recruitment and promotion of women at large research institutions, gendered stereotypical beliefs and unspoken genderbased predispositions may discourage several young women from taking up STEM intensive professions, thereby making these sectors "male-dominated" [24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, in addition to mental ability, competency evaluations, preferences, and values that one connects to important subject areas have a significant impact on job choice [29][30][31]. STEM occupations are considerably more likely to be followed by individuals who believe they are educated and enthusiastic about science and mathematics [32][33][34][35]. People's ideas, beliefs, objectives, aspirations, social identities, capacity to flourish, and connection to others are exposed through interactions and experiences in various situations [36][37][38].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Psychological, Sociocultural, and Biological Elucidations for Gender Gap in STEM Education: A Call for Translation of Research into Evidence-Based Interventions

Alam¹

2022

Atlantis Highlights in Social Sciences, Education and Humanities

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Despite recent progress in narrowing gender gap in enrolment in math courses and relative achievements therein, girls and women still remain underrepresented when it comes to formal education in math-intensive academic fields such as engineering, mathematics, technology, and science, often referred to as STEM. Capacity to undertake a job and also the drive to put scientific and mathematical aptitude to use are both included in career paths. Individual variations in cognitive capability and motivation are impacted by a variety of sociocultural variables. The authors have presented six explanations for girl's inadequate representation in math-intensive STEM professions after analysing academic researches carried out in last three decades in domains of education, economics, sociology, and psychology: (a) preconceptions and biases based on gender, (b) field-specific ability beliefs, (c) lifestyle values or work-family balance preferences, (d) professional inclinations or desires, (e) comparative cerebral capabilities, and (f) cognitive aptitude. The study goes on to discuss sociocultural and biological causes for reported gender differences in motivational and cognitive factors, as well as the evolutionary period(s) during which each variable became most important. Authors concludes with evidence and scientific-proof based research, policy and practise suggestions for improving STEM inclusivity, and gives recommendations and directions for forthcoming researches.

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“…Sampson & Hancock, 1967). Additionally, gender is a strong predictor of career outcomes and status attainment (Cardador et al, 2020;Damian et al, 2015).…”

Section: Covariatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negligible effects of birth order on selection into scientific and artistic careers, creativity, and status attainment

Damian

Spengler

2020

Eur J Pers

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We tested birth order effects on selection into different careers (scientific, artistic, and creative) and status attainment (educational attainment, occupational prestige, and income) using a large sample ( n = 3763), a longitudinal design, and relevant controls. Additionally, we tested mediation of birth order effects on career outcomes via personality traits, intelligence, and educational attainment. We found negligible birth order effects ranging from 0.02 to 0.12 on a correlational metric, where firstborns (vs. laterborns) selected into more creative careers and attained higher prestige and education. Conditional on the theoretically based mediation models tested, results showed that intelligence and educational attainment (but not personality traits) accounted for a statistically significant portion of the variance in the links between birth order and career outcomes. No direct effects of birth order on career outcomes remained when accounting for indirect effects through educational attainment. These findings bring modest support to the confluence model, no support to the niche-finding model, and suggest that one possible route via which birth order might impact career outcomes (if at all) could be via educational attainment.

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Does More Mean Less?: Interest Surplus and the Gender Gap in STEM Careers

Cited by 20 publications

References 67 publications

Adolescent vocational interests predict early career success: Two 12‐year longitudinal studies

Adolescent vocational interests predict early career success: Two 12‐year longitudinal studies

Psychological, Sociocultural, and Biological Elucidations for Gender Gap in STEM Education: A Call for Translation of Research into Evidence-Based Interventions

Negligible effects of birth order on selection into scientific and artistic careers, creativity, and status attainment

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