Abstract
We investigated sex differences in 473,260 adolescents’ aspirations to work in things-oriented (e.g., mechanic), people-oriented (e.g., nurse), and STEM (e.g., mathematician) careers across 80 countries and economic regions using the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). We analyzed student career aspirations in combination with student achievement in mathematics, reading, and science, as well as parental occupations and family wealth. In each country and region, more boys than girls aspired to a things-oriented or STEM occupation and more girls than boys to a people-oriented occupation. These sex differences were larger in countries with a higher level of women’s empowerment. We explain this counter-intuitive finding through the indirect effect of wealth. Women’s empowerment is associated with relatively high levels of national wealth and this wealth allows more students to aspire to occupations they are intrinsically interested in. Implications for better understanding the sources of sex differences in career aspirations and associated policy are discussed.
Highlights
The psychological traits that influence people’s occupational aspirations are of substantive theoretical and practical importance
The sex differences question is often contentious because men are overrepresented in many high-paying and high-status science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations despite increased legal, political, and socioeconomic gender equality [6]
In order to test these hypotheses, we present a detailed analysis of the relation between occupational aspirations among 15 and 16-year old boys and girls across the Organisation for Economic Collaboration and Development (OECD) and a number of non-OECD nations
Summary
The psychological traits that influence people’s occupational aspirations are of substantive theoretical and practical importance. One associated and often contentious question concerns the sex difference in occupational interests, which is possibly "the largest of all sex differences on major psychological dimensions" [1]. The sex differences question is often contentious because men are overrepresented in many high-paying and high-status science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations despite increased legal, political, and socioeconomic gender equality [6]. This runs counter to the assumption that increased levels of gender equality in political, economic, and educational participation would lead to greater similarities in women’s and men’s psychological traits and, reduce gender stratification in occupational choices [7].
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