Is the desire for a family-flexible job keeping young women out of male-dominated occupations?

Abstract

Although women made tremendous gains in entering traditionally maledominated professions during the 20th century, gender differences have persisted through the turn of the millennium in adult occupational pursuits (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2002). By the end of the 1990s, women were earning more bachelor's degrees than men but were still underrepresented in many traditionally male-dominated occupational fields, such as engineering (18%), physical science, (37%), mathematical and computer science (34%), chemistry (26%), and law (27%; Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], 1998; NCES, 1997 NCES, , 2000. In the mid-1990s, women represented 46% of the nation's labor force but only 9% of engineers, 29% of computer and math scientists, and 22% of physical scientists (NCES, 2000). Many women were still concentrated in traditionally "feminine" occupations with low status and low pay (BLS, 1998). For example, women were less represented in higher

STEM Education

“…Questions have also been raised concerning the validity and reliability of measures commonly used in this line of research, such as the person-thing construct and similar bipolar interest scales (e.g., data-ideas) (Tay et al 2011; Valian 2014). Further, although gender differences in work-life preferences are pervasive, they do not explain gender gaps in STEM interest or participation (Xie & Shauman 2003; Frome et al 2006, 2008; Cech et al 2011; Riegle-Crumb et al 2012; Perez-Felkner et al 2012; Morgan et al 2013; Mann & DiPrete 2013). …”

New Routes to Recruiting and Retaining Women in STEM: Policy Implications of a Communal Goal Congruity Perspective

“…Importantly, Weisgram and Diekman (in preparation) demonstrated that adolescents and emerging adults perceive STEM careers to afford family values less than other values such as money, power, and altruism. In their longitudinal work, Frome, Alfeld, Eccles, and Barber (2008) found that desiring a family flexible job in 12th grade predicted women changing their career aspiration from a masculine field to a feminine field by age 25.…”

The Role of Masculinity/Femininity, Values, and Occupational Value Affordances in Shaping Young Men’s and Women’s Occupational Choices

“…A complete examination of all of the constructs addressed in this model is beyond the scope of this paper, rather we focus on one of the primary constructs outlined by Eccles-values. In subsequent work, Eccles and colleagues broadened their original construct of subjective task value to include occupational values such as desiring a job that helps others, allows one to earn a high salary, or have time with his or her family (Eccles et al 1999;Frome et al 2008). The model posits that the values endorsed by males and females are directly influenced by the differential gender role expectations placed on these individuals by socializing agents.…”