Gendered Career Choices: Paths Toward Studying a Degree in Physical Activity and Sport Science

Abstract

Drawing on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), we examined factors affecting interest in pursuing a degree in Physical Activity and Sport Science (PASS) among Spanish teenage students. Although women were awarded 55.1% of all bachelor degrees in Spain in 2017–2018, female enrollment in PASS degrees is decreasing and currently stands below 20% across the country. To better understand the under-representation of women in this field, 4146 students (50.2% girls; mean age = 16.82 years; SD = 0.837) participated in a survey designed to measure a series of SCCT constructs: interest in studying a PASS degree, career outcome expectations, goal representations, and perceived social supports. With these data, we tested a set of path analysis models to explain gender differences in interest in studying a degree in PASS. These models tested the assumption that interest in PASS would mediate the paths from outcome expectations and social supports to goal representations. Model 1 assumed that interest would partially mediate the path from outcome expectations to goal representations, Model 2 assumed complete mediation, and Model 3 assumed absence of mediation. All models were tested separately for boys and girls. Our results provide information on how male and female students set personal goals based on expected career outcomes and show that this process is affected by gender stereotypes. The lack of interest by young women in studying a degree in PASS (only 7.8% of girls expressed this interest compared with 19.0% of boys), together with the gender differences observed in perceived social supports, outcome expectations, and goal representations, have several important theoretical and practical implications. The present research suggests that interventions that foster positive outcome expectations and social support are necessary to increase interest in studying PASS among teenage girls.

“What Can I Be When I Grow Up?”—The Influence of Own and Others’ Career Expectations on Adolescents’ Perception of Stress in Their Career Orientation Phase

“…Prior research has shown that gender plays an important role in career orientation and role models affect the idea of one's professional role with respect to gender. A self-concept that does not critically evaluate these patterns will restrict adolescents' career orientation and thus inhibit chances for development [58,59]. Young women often are more family-minded and state career and family goals as equally important [55].…”

Masculinización de la matrícula universitaria en la carrera de Educación Física. Un análisis desde la perspectiva de género

“…A raíz de lo anterior, se han identificado trabajos sobre las brechas de género en carreras de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte (CAFD), Cultura Física y otras similares a PEF. En España, Serra et al (2019a) publicaron datos sobre la presencia de mujeres en los estudios de CAFD en los dos campus del Instituto Nacional de Educación Física de Cataluña-INEFC (Lleida y Barcelona); reportan que en el curso 1999/2000 el 35 % de la matrícula total era femenina, valor que muestra un descenso notable hasta el curso 2014/2015, donde se registró un 17,3 %. La investigación también revela que, entre las especialidades de Magisterio en Cataluña, la de Educación Física es la que posee una menor presencia femenina entre los cursos de los años 2000/2001 y 2011/2012, nunca superó el 50 % de la matrícula total anual.…”

Living Life Through Sport: The Transition of Elite Spanish Student-Athletes to a University Degree in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences

“…Eleven ESAs (eight men and three women) volunteered to participate in the study and met the selection criteria. The greater presence of men in the sample reflects the distribution of male and female students in the PASS degree in Spain (just 18% of students enrolled in this degree are female) (Serra et al, 2019). At the time of data collection, the ESAs (listed with their pseudonyms in Table 1) were aged between 19 and 24 years (M age = 20.7, SD = 1.6).…”