Career Gap Research Articles

The holding pattern of the worker Bs: how bifurcation of consciousness impacts female academic career progression

PurposeThis paper examines an identified but unexplored career gap evidenced at a mid-level classification in the academic career path for women in Australia. This career-stalling effect or holding pattern, is examined to determine underlying causes of career trajectory interruption.Design/methodology/approachGuided by the epistemological stance of standpoint theory, this exploratory abductive study employs a novel arts-based method, draw, write, reflect, to access experiences that may be difficult to convey verbally. The obtained drawings and reflections were thematically analysed.FindingsDrawing on Bourdieu’s concept of illusio this article finds support for female academics’ bifurcated consciousness. Results demonstrate how opposing social role prescriptions result in the deliberate avoidance of work-life conflict, a nuanced lack of confidence in work tasks in combination with other, often competing responsibilities, and the uneven distribution of administrative duties known as “academic housework”, which combine to stall careers. Female academics feel pressure to prioritise their domestic role and eschew career progression.Research limitations/implicationsDespite the small sample size, the findings provide rich career narratives and experiences of female academics in Australia providing additional impetus for increased gender equity efforts.Originality/valueThis study is the first to explore the previously unidentified holding pattern for female academics in Australia. Findings suggest there is a range of previously unexplored impediments resulting in a gendered stalling at a mid-level classification interrupting female academic career progression.

Choice of Career Gap Among Adolescents with Disabilities

Various initiatives have been implemented to enhance the circumstances of adolescents with disabilities in their chosen professions. These efforts encompass the development of policies to direct Nigeria's educational system in supporting students with disabilities in pursuing jobs that align with their specific impairments. Furthermore, in order to successfully overcome the hurdles related to selecting a career. Several seminars and conferences were held in Nigeria to discuss the importance of career education in promoting the participation of adolescents with disabilities in career development. The discussion explicitly focused on theories of career choice and the challenges that adolescents with disabilities face in their chosen career paths. These challenges include teachers' lack of knowledge and skills in planning and utilizing career education experiences, a shortage of teachers, and inadequate resources for implementation. When making decisions about Career Education for teenagers with disabilities, it is important to carefully explore suitable techniques that take into account the specific obstacles they face.

Abstract 240: Factors Affecting Selection of TraineE for Neurointervention (FASTEN)

Introduction Neurointervention has become one of the most competitive specialties in the United States due to the limited number of training spots, and a larger pool of applicants from different backgrounds: neurosurgery, neurology, and radiology. The training standards are continuously updated to ensure solid learning experiences, which ultimately factors in better outcomes and fewer complications. There is a move towards a structured competency assessment of training requirements via collaboration among several professional societies. However, the substantial drivers of candidate selection by program directors (PDs) have not been fully established yet. The goal of our study is to investigate the factors influencing the selection of fellowship candidates. Methods We distributed a 52‐question electronic survey via REDCap to 93 PDs. The questionnaire was divided into 5 categories: program characteristics; candidate demographics; educational credentials; personal traits; and research and extracurricular activities. The PDs were then asked to rank 5 pre‐selected factors from across all 5 categories. Each category included a subset of multiple‐choice questions to be graded as indicated for each category. Characteristics for these categories were scored from a range of 1 through 10 and means with standard deviations (SD) were calculated for each characteristic. Results Of the 93 PDs surveyed, 55 PDs filled the survey with a response rate of 59.1%. As per the programs’ characteristics, Neurosurgery was the most involved specialty in running the training programs (69.1%), followed by neurology (38.2%), and radiology (30.9%). Most programs were based in academic hospitals (87.3%, n=48/55). The most important criterion for candidate’s demographic characteristics was the need for visa sponsorship, followed by career gap and number of years from graduation from residency program, as summarized in Figure 1A. The most important criteria for educational credentials were being a graduate from a neurosurgical residency program (5.4 ± 2.9), and the institution where the candidate’s residency training is/was based (5.4 ± 2.5). Regarding the candidate’s personal traits, assessment by faculty members at the interview had the highest score (8.9 ± 1). In terms of research and extracurricular activities, fluency in English had the highest score (7.2 ± 1.9), followed by the number of peer‐reviewed/PubMed‐indexed publications (6.4 ± 2.2). Ranking of a final set of 5 characteristics from across all categories is summarized in Figure 1B, with knowledge of the candidate being the single most important contributing factor. Conclusion Neurointerventional training is open to candidates in neurosurgery, neurology, and radiology. To our knowledge, our survey is the first to investigate the factors that might be implicated in the final decision made by PDs when choosing the future neurointerventional trainee, including demographic, educational, research and extracurricular activities.

Career arduousness and instability: Both matter for health beyond 50

AbstractThis paper explores the long‐term consequences of career arduousness and career instability for both physical and mental health in the European context. One of its strengths is to link what happens during the entire career and the health status at an older age. The paper finds a positive link between career arduousness (i.e. the sum of job demands individuals have been exposed to during their entire career) and late‐life mental and physical ill health, but also evidence that career instability (i.e. career gaps, job insecurity, displacements, unemployment spells) could matter as much as arduousness per se. And this has implications for pension policy inter alia.

Novel Perspectives on Women’s Careers: A Review and Directions for Future Research

Despite important advances in women’s career development over the past few decades, recent data suggest that the progress toward closing the gender career gap remains slow and might even be scaling back. Over the last decade, and in the recent context of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have witnessed a shift in workplace practices that are associated with potentially harmful consequences for women’s careers. These developments motivated us to take stock of the current state of the literature on women’s careers. Obtaining a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms placing women at a career disadvantage and unveiling the unanswered questions on this important topic are critical to reducing gender career inequality in the future. In the present research, we review 178 articles on the topic of women’s careers from top-tier journals in the management, applied psychology and career disciplines and categorize them into five distinct perspectives, namely, relational, decision-making, gender bias, temporal and intersectional. We present the perspectives’ premises, summarize the key findings for each perspective and highlight their associated major research gaps. Based upon an analysis derived from these perspectives, we delineate four directions for future research to advance the field on women’s careers.

Untangling the gender pay gap in radiation oncology.

Untangling the gender pay gap in radiation oncology.

Small female citation advantages for US journal articles in medicine

Female under-representation continues in senior roles within academic medicine, potentially influenced by a perception that female research has less citation impact. This article provides systematic evidence of (a) female participation rates from the perspective of published journal articles in 46 Scopus medical subject categories 1996–2018 and (b) gender differences in citation rates 1996–2014. The results show female proportion increases 1996–2018 in all fields and a female majority of first-authored articles in two-fifths of categories, but substantial differences between fields. A paper is 7.3 times more likely to have a female first author in Obstetrics and Gynaecology than in Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. Only three fields had a female last author majority by 2018, a probable side effect of ongoing problems with appointing female leaders. Female first-authored research tended to be more cited than male first-authored research in most fields (59%), although with a maximum difference of only 5.1% (log-transformed normalised citations). In contrast, male last-authored research tends to be more cited than female last-authored research, perhaps due to cases where a senior male has attracted substantial funding for a project. These differences increase if team sizes are not accounted for in the calculations. Since female first-authored research is cited slightly more than male first-authored research, properly analysed bibliometric data considering career gaps should not disadvantage female candidates for senior roles.

Gender issues in fundamental physics: A bibliometric analysis

AbstractI analyze bibliometric data about fundamental physics worldwide from 1970 to now, extracting quantitative data about gender issues. I do not find significant gender differences in hiring rates, hiring timing, career gaps and slowdowns, abandonment rates, citation, and self-citation patterns. Furthermore, various bibliometric indicators (number of fractionally counted papers, citations, etc.) exhibit a productivity gap at hiring moments, at career level, and without integrating over careers. The gap persists after accounting for confounding factors and manifests as an increasing fraction of male authors going from average to top authors in terms of bibliometric indices, with a quantitative shape that can be fitted by higher male variability.

Early- and mid-career transition to research leadership in Africa

This article examines the early-and mid-career transition to research leadership in Africa. Much of the available African literature on research leadership indicate several challenges related to poor conceptualisations of career transitions and gaps in the availability of research training. Qualitative data were collected using individual interviews (n=24) and focus groups (n=27) to identify key transition points of early career researchers (ECRs) and mid-career researchers (MCRs) in selected African countries. The qualitative data was complemented with quantitative survey questionnaires (n=250) and a triangulation approach was adopted to analyse the results. The findings were themed into different categories describing the common career paths, stages and challenges of research leaders. The latter part of the findings present a discussion on development approaches to attract and retain researchers in African universities. By focusing on the African continent, this study contributes to the current body of literature on research leadership in the Global South.

Racial/Ethnic Minority Community College Students' Critical Consciousness and Social Cognitive Career Outcomes

A need exists to better understand how racial/ethnic minority students' critical consciousness development in response to marginalization may be involved in their educational and career development. We therefore examined the link between critical consciousness development and career decision self‐efficacy and career outcome expectations among racial/ethnic minority community college students. Following social cognitive career theory's conceptual pillars, we developed a testable model integrating critical consciousness and social cognitive variables. This model was tested with 135 racially and ethnically diverse community college students. Data analysis included path analyses and tests of model fit using structural equation modeling. Results suggested that (a) higher critical agency is linked to higher career decision self‐efficacy and outcome expectations and (b) critical action and reflection have a bidirectional link and predict higher critical agency. Implications for research and practice aiming to close educational and career gaps among racial/ethnic minorities are discussed.

An existential psychological perspective on Chinese career gap travel

This study examined travellers’ reflections of meaning in career gap travel experiences, through an existential psychology lens. Specifically, it investigated how career gap travellers conferred and fundamentally shifted meaning in their lives. Eleven career gap travellers’ reflections were interpreted through existential-narrative analysis. The study contributed to current knowledge by developing a career gap travel cycle including stages before, during and after the trip. The findings showed that career crises and existential anxiety for something more meaningful were the antecedents of career gap travel in the pre-trip stage. The trip itself comprised two stages: the early days of travel were depicted as pleasurable; however, long-term travel also involved existential challenges, such as anxiety and fear. The post-trip stage involved post-trip liminality and travel syndrome related to fear of failure and anxiety. The article concludes with a discussion of future research areas for career gap travel.

Gender Promotion Gaps: Career Aspirations and Workplace Discrimination

Using a nationally representative longitudinal survey of lawyers in the U.S., we document a sizeable gap between men and women in their early aspirations to become law firm partners, despite similar early investments and educational characteristics. This aspiration gap can explain a large part of the gender promotion gap that is observed later. We propose a model to understand the role of aspirations and then empirically test its predictions. We show that aspirations create incentives to exert effort and are correlated with expectations of success and the preference for becoming a partner. We further show that aspirations are affected by early work experiences – facing harassment or demeaning comments early in the career affects long-term promotion outcomes mediated via aspirations. Our research highlights the importance of accounting for, and managing, career aspirations as an early intervention to close gender career gaps.

Gender Promotion Gaps: Career Aspirations and Workplace Discrimination

Using a nationally representative longitudinal survey of lawyers in the U.S., we document a sizeable gap between men and women in their early aspirations to become law firm partners, despite similar early investments and educational characteristics. This aspiration gap can explain a large part of the gender promotion gap that is observed later. We propose a model to understand the role of aspirations and then empirically test its predictions. We show that aspirations create incentives to exert effort and are correlated with expectations of success and the preference for becoming a partner. We further show that aspirations are affected by early work experiences – facing harassment or demeaning comments early in the career affects long-term promotion outcomes mediated via aspirations. Our research highlights the importance of accounting for, and managing, career aspirations as an early intervention to close gender career gaps.

From Grad Student to Government: How Policy Fellowships Are Bridging the Career Gap

From Grad Student to Government: How Policy Fellowships Are Bridging the Career Gap

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It takes a village to raise a child. For a parent, this includes not only family and friends but support from employers and professional institutions as well. Any career gap can leave a professional feeling isolated and overwhelmed by the learning curve associated with reentering the workforce. With time, maternity support has improved significantly all over the world, but it still varies geographically. In Canada, eligible mothers can receive maternity benefits up to 12 weeks before their due date, and parents can choose to receive parental benefits over a period of 12 months at the current benefit rate or up to 18 months at a lower benefit rate. In the United States, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act requires employers to provide up to only 12 weeks of unpaid leave for several medical conditions, including childbirth for mothers. In Venezuela, pregnant women cannot be terminated from work during a period that lasts from the start of the pregnancy until two years after delivering the baby. There is also a provision in Venezuela for 26 weeks of paid maternity leave and two weeks of paternity leave. Paid maternity leave in Kuwait is 70 days, and female employees can request nonpaid leave up to four months after those 70 days.

Parenthood, Family Friendly Workplaces, and the Gender Gaps in Early Work Careers

We consider the role that workplace attributes play in accounting for the divergence in the careers of women and men, with the onset of parenthood. We exploit matched employer-employee data from Sweden to characterize a model-based index of workplace “family friendliness” and analyze the effect of more family friendly workplaces on the career gaps between mothers and fathers. We find that exogenously moving mothers to more family friendly workplaces would raise their wages and labor income. In contrast, such moves would entail reductions in the same outcomes for fathers, resulting in sizeable improvements in the parental gender gap in wages and income. At the same time, working in more family friendly workplaces would not reduce the penalty to wage rates earned by women with their transition to motherhood (i.e., the motherhood penalty), but it would reduce the motherhood penalty to earned income by facilitating mothers working more hours. Furthermore, the benefits of family friendly workplaces appear to come at the expense of the occupational skill progression of mothers relative to non-mothers, impeding mothers’ ability to climb career ladders over the longer run. Finally, using auxiliary data based on a survey, we find that jobs – as defined by our index – are more substitutable for one another in family friendly workplaces. This substitutability of workers in more family friendly workplaces appears to be the mechanism that facilitates mothers’ ability to balance work and family responsibilities in such workplaces. At the same time, it also may partially explain our finding that more family friendly workplaces slow mothers’ occupational skill-progression.

Undermining Gender Equality: Female Attrition from Private Law Practice

The number of women in the legal profession has grown tremendously over the last 40 years, with women now representing about half of all law school graduates. Despite the decades-long pipeline of women into the profession, women's representation among law firm partnerships remains dismally low. One key reason identified for women's minority presence among law firm partners is the high level of attrition of women associates from law firms. This high rate of female attrition undermines efforts to achieve gender equality in the legal profession. Using a survey of 1,270 law graduates, we employ piecewise constant exponential hazard regression models to explore gendered career paths from private law practice. Our analysis reveals that, for both men and women, the time leading up to partnership decisions sees many lawyers exit private practice, but women continue to leave private practice long after partnership decisions are made. Gender differences in leaving private practice also surface with reference to cohorts, areas of law, billable hours, firm sizes, and career gaps. Notably, working in criminal law augmented women's risk of leaving private practice, but not for men, while taking time away from practice for reasons other than parental leaves, hastens both men's and women's exits from private practice.

КОПРОЛІТИ ХРЯЩОВИХ РИБ ІЗ ПАЛЕОГЕНОВИХ ВІДКЛАДІВ КРИМУ

First is a description of the Eocene fish coprolites Selachicoprus volgensis Khosatskyet Vialov of sections Ak-kaya and Prolom (Belogorsky region, Crimea). The data obtained are expanding information about trace fossils vertebrates Paleogene and justify their prospects further researches of Cenozoic deposits of Ukraine. Investigated two coprolites location in Belogorsk region of Crimea. The first of them is a career gap, which is located on the left bank district. Kuchuk Karasu, about 1 km south of the village Prolom and the second is near the village Bila Skelia (White Rock) on the right bank Biyuk-Karasu was open N.I. Udovychenko and luhansk paleontologists studied for over 20 years. Should be noted that maximum concentration remains of vertebrates, with whom coprolites are found, there is a layer 4 and bottom layer 6, which are composed greenish-brown sand, glauconite, calcareous concretions of small phosphorite, small grains mixed gravel and greenish-yellow calcareous clay, sandstone with very large admixture of glauconite, phosphorite concretions small. The presence of well-preserved coprolites indicates the existence of the bottom of the reservoir areas inviting waters, and the presence of dissolved phosphates, which are not allowed to chemically break down coprolites. Keywords: coprolites, Eocene, Oligocene, Crimea.

‘Gap Year' in China: views from the participants and implications for the future

The present study is one of the first to assess the characteristics and consider the implications of the emerging gap year phenomenon within China. More specifically, the research answers three questions: (1) Who are the Chinese gap year takers? (2) What motivates the Chinese gap year participants' involvement in the new activity? and (3) How does the concept of a Chinese gap year differ from its Western counterpart? A netnographic study of 103 blogs was followed by 18 in-depth telephone interviews. The findings were compared with existing knowledge from studies about the Western gap year participants. It was found that individuals taking a Chinese gap year differed from their western counterparts both in demographic and behavioural terms. The type of gap year (career gap vs. pre-university gap) and forces from within the broader Chinese cultural context are producing a growing, distinctive and positively perceived travel phenomenon. The present study offers initial implications for international tourism marketing, as well as posing questions about the flexibility of educational programmes and human resource management in China; all of these interest groups might be able to meet the needs of this emerging niche market more creatively.

Career gaps: Maternity muddle.

The support available for childbirth and rearing varies wildly. New parents come up with creative ways to juggle demands.