Abstract
The great majority of the UK clinical psychology workforce are women, and this fact prompted an examination of the various ways clinical psychology might be seen as attractive to women--a neglected research topic. Female clinical psychology trainees from a variety of training programmes Q-sorted statements of potential job attractors. The process of analysis is outlined before most of the article is devoted to explicating the five narratives of attraction generated: making a difference, waiting for what I want, idealising challenge, identifying with distress and acknowledging power and privilege. Two super-ordinate 'stories' spanning the narratives are suggested--an over-riding attraction to the profession and a rebuttal of the suggestion that this attraction may be based on any overtly gendered grounds. In the absence of previous empirical data of women's attraction to clinical psychology, the small but significant contribution to understanding the profession made by the analysis is acknowledged--as is the need for further research to confirm and develop the findings.
Highlights
Achieving gender desegregation within the number of people with jobs in psychology (e.g., Ostertag & McNamara, 1991) was, at least for clinical psychology, a passing phase towards the re-segregation of the workforce (Snyder, McDermott, Leibowitz & Cheavens, 2000)
The present study examined the narratives of female UK clinical psychology trainees regarding what had attracted them to join the profession
Using a binary distinction between ratings of 2 or less and 3 or more, six statements were rated low over all factors, but none universally high
Summary
Achieving gender desegregation within the number of people with jobs in psychology (e.g., Ostertag & McNamara, 1991) was, at least for clinical psychology, a passing phase towards the re-segregation of the workforce (Snyder, McDermott, Leibowitz & Cheavens, 2000). The feminisation of the UK clinical psychology workforce seems to have been driven by a less crude impetus than that of many other jobs during the 20th century – things like women being hired to make up for a wartime male shortfall, or because they could be hired at significantly lower rates of pay (Reskin & Roos, 1990). Job attractor narratives of female trainee clinical psychologists place fairly rapidly, over the past three decades, and has been reflected not at the point of hiring, but throughout an educational trajectory spanning psychology at A-level and at undergraduate level, during pre-training occupational experience, and during postgraduate training – as well as at eventual appointment as qualified professionals (BPS, 2004, 2005; Holdstock, 1998). Little attention has been paid to why women have been attracted to psychology, and to clinical psychology in particular
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