Nontraditional Career Choices Research Articles

Are Interest Assessments Propagating Gender Differences in Occupations?

The current study focused on the effect of assessment methods on estimates of gender differences in interests across Holland’s themes. College students (121 women, 76 men) rated their interests in Holland-based activities and occupations using Likert-type scales, and they also completed a card sorting assessment of Holland interests using occupation-based items. Gender differences were consistently observed for realistic and social interests with the magnitude of the observed gender differences varying by measure type. A Gender × Measure interaction accounted for 33% of the variance observed in interest scores: Occupation-based scales produced larger differences than activity-based scales, and the card sorting assessment produced larger gender differences than the Likert-type rating scales. Therefore, the choice of interest measure used in career counseling may influence the extent to which gender affects the career decision-making process, which may be particularly important when exploring nontraditional career choices for women and men.

Nontraditional career choices of Mexican American men: Influence of acculturation, enculturation, gender role traits, self-efficacy, and interests.

Nontraditional career choices of Mexican American men: Influence of acculturation, enculturation, gender role traits, self-efficacy, and interests.

Work—family interface for men in nontraditional careers

Men are choosing to enter nontraditional careers with greater frequency. In this article, the authors examine nontraditional career choices made by men and review current empirical literature relevant to this topic. Gottfredson's (1981, 1996) theory of circumscription and compromise and Holland's (1997) career choice theory are used as frameworks to examine factors that influence men to pursue nontraditional career choices. The impact of gender role socialization provides further understanding of career choice. The role strain and changing life and family roles that often accompany these nontraditional occupations are also examined. Implications for career counselors, suggestions for counseling interventions, and directions for future research are also discussed.

Relation of Success and Nontraditional Career Choice to Selection for Dating and Friendship

Women who succeed in traditionally male-dominated fields have previously been found to experience lower social acceptance, both from men in romantic contexts and from women in platonic contexts. The present study examined whether such preferences continue to exist. Participants were 256 university students (110 men, 146 women) with an average age of 21.4 yr. (SD = 3.6). They answered the Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Modern Sexism Scale and also responded to four descriptions of stimulus persons which represented the variables of traditional versus nontraditional field and successful versus nondescribed academic performance. Results indicated that men preferred to date women in traditional careers (independent of their success). This finding was unrelated to men's scores on sex role orientation or egalitarianism and sexism. However, in platonic relationships, women favored women in nontraditional careers as friends.

On Men and Work

The purpose of this article is to review the literature related to men who pursue nontraditional career choices such as gender atypical occupations outside the home or being stay-at-home fathers. Key foundational findings and current studies that provide information about what factors influence men’s pursuit of nontraditional careers both in the paid labor market and as stay-at-home-fathers, as well as their experience of these important life choices, are reviewed. We then turn to specific recommendations from the literature which can inform the work of future researchers and career counselors in this area.

The Elimination of Sexism and Stereotyping in Occupational Education

This paper examines how sexism and stereotyping in vocational education promote and reinforce gendered occupations. Progressive adult education has been the philosophical foundation for vocational education but has not challenged the strong disparity of the sex role division of occupations. A critical theory of education needs to be implemented in order to break through traditional patriarchal hierarchies. Variables that affect educational and career choice in vocational education are examined. Sex role specific occupations are promoted through social venues and reinforced by gender, race, and class status. Teacher education is a focal area where change must occur. Teacher expectations and teaching styles need to recognize the importance of nontraditional career choices for all students. These expectations must challenge traditional notions of masculinity and femininity.

A Theory of Women's Career Choice in Construction Management: Recommendations for Academia

The construction industry is the second most segmented labor market, narrowly behind manufacturing and mining. Construction management degree programs at colleges and universities throughout the country hold similar demographics. This study investigated this phenomenon by integrating the perceptions and experiences of 24 female alumni who are currently employed as constructors with an extensive analysis of theory and research in the areas of career development, factors of non-traditional career choice, and characteristics and strategies of persistence. These women identified factors from early childhood through graduation which were relevant to their non-traditional degree choice and persistence in a construction management degree program. Such factors included family background and individual factors, environmental factors and experiences in education, and sociological factors relevant to major choice and persistence. The outcome was a substantive grounded theory of women's career choice. Likewise, a profile of female constructors was created and used as part of this theory, providing for an understanding of the career choice process for women in construction management. A final aspect of the study includes recommendations for those in academia to better focus efforts on both recruiting and retaining women in construction management degree programs.

Computer Science Majors: Sex Role Orientation, Academic Achievement, and Social Cognitive Factors

This study examined the sex role orientations endorsed by 188 male and female students majoring in computer science, a male‐dominated college degree program. The relations among sex role orientation and academic achievement and social cognitive factors influential in career decision‐making self‐efficacy were explored. Findings revealed that androgynous‐ and feminine‐oriented students scored significantly higher on career decision‐making self‐efficacy as compared with undifferentiated students. No significant sex role orientation differences were found for academic achievement and general and career locus of control.

Testing a Model of Nontraditional Career Choice Goals With Mexican American Adolescent Men

This study examined the nontraditional career choice goals of 302 Mexican American adolescent men using an extended version of Lent, Brown, and Hackett’s (1994) career choice model. It was hypothesized that several background contextual variables (e.g., acculturation level, parental support, perceived occupational gender barriers) would predict nontraditional career self-efficacy. Nontraditional career self-efficacy was hypothesized to predict nontraditional career interests, and both nontraditional career self-efficacy and nontraditional career interests would predict nontraditional career choice goals. Results supported a modified path model. Mexican American adolescent men’s nontraditional career self-efficacy was predicted by acculturation level and parental support. Additionally, nontraditional career self-efficacy predicted nontraditional career interests, and expressed choice of nontraditional careers was predicted by nontraditional career interests and father’s career nontraditionality. Implications to career counseling with Mexican American adolescent men are discussed.

The impact of college on sex-atypical career choices of men and women

This study sought to identify the college environments and experiences associated with changes in sex-atypical career aspirations among men and women. A sample of 17,637 students attending baccalaureate institutions across the country was surveyed upon college entry and again 4 years later. The findings revealed that aspects of the college environment, including the peer culture, faculty interaction, and curriculum, all contribute to shifts to or from nontraditional career choices.

Masculinity at Work

This article presents the findings of a research project on the implications of men’s non-traditional career choices for their experiences within the organization and for gender identity. The research is based on 40 in-depth interviews with male workers from four occupational groups: librarians, cabin crew, nurses and primary school teachers. Results suggest a typology of male workers in female dominated occupations: seekers (who actively seek the career), finders (who find the occupation in the process of making general career decisions) and settlers (who settle into the career after periods of time in mainly male dominated occupations). Men benefit from their minority status through assumptions of enhanced leadership (the assumed authority effect), by being given differential treatment (the special consideration effect) and being associated with a more careerist attitude to work (the career effect). At the same time, they feel comfortable working with women (the zone of comfort effect). Despite this comfort, men adopt a variety of strategies to re-establish a masculinity that has been undermined by the ‘feminine‘ nature of their work. These include re-labelling, status enhancement and distancing from the feminine. The dynamics of maintaining and reproducing masculinities within the non-traditional work setting are discussed in the light of recent theorizing around gender, masculinity and work.

Testing a Model of Men's Nontraditional Occupational Choices

Researchers have compiled an extensive body of literature on the factors that influence the “traditionality,” or the gender typical nature, of women's career choices. However, little has been written about the variables that might influence men to enter gender atypical occupations. This study tested L. H. Chusmir's (1990) model of men's nontraditional occupational choice, using a longitudinal sample of college‐age men in both gender traditional and nontraditional occupations. Liberal social attitudes, degree aspirations at Time 2, and socioeconomic status were directly predictive of nontraditional career choice, whereas the importance of a prestigious career at Time 1 and academic ability had an indirect influence on whether a traditional career choice was made.

Rewards, Risks and Tensions: Perceptions of males enrolled in an early childhood teacher education programme

This article describes the perceptions held by a group of male early childhood student teachers concerning the potential rewards and risks entailed in their non-traditional career choice, and the gender-related tensions they encountered in their pre-service programme. Although these men hoped that their involvement in early childhood education might contribute to long-term gender reform, their accounts indicated that each had difficulty articulating a consistent perspective about gender and gender-related issues. The article highlights the need for early childhood teacher education programmes to address gender issues, and considers implications for teacher educators seeking to increase the participation and retention rates of pro-feminist males with potential to contribute to gender reform.

Modeling Nontraditional Career Choices: Effects of Gender and School Location on Response to a Brief Videotape

Effects of an 18‐minute videotape promoting nontraditional career choices of 986 eighth‐grade and 11th‐grade girls and boys from rural and urban schools were examined. Models were women and men in occupations traditionally held by the opposite sex. Posttreatment realistic, investigative, and social interests of the treatment group who viewed the videotape were compared with a control group that received a minimal intervention. There was not a main effect for the brief videotape treatment. Boys in the treatment group expressed significantly higher social interests at posttest than did control group boys. Findings indicate that brief interventions promoting nontraditional careers have limited impact.

Women as Mature-Aged Engineering Students

This study, based on female engineering students at the Moorabbin College of TAFE and Swinburne University of Technology, examined the influences on mature-aged women making non-traditional career choices. It was designed to investigate how these influences and the students' personal values had changed since making career choices as a high school student. Through the use of a survey and personal case study interviews, information regarding the problems and benefits of being a mature-aged female student of a non-traditional career was gathered. An insight into the personality type of the ‘non-traditional’ career student was also gained.

Taking Your Place: A Summer Program to Encourage Nontraditional Career Choices for Adolescent Girls

A 2‐week summer program for adolescent girls featuring awareness of nontraditional career choices was provided via a cooperative plan from a public school system, a community college, and a university. The program included 80 hours of activities: business and industry visitations, technical and trade shop “hands‐on” activities as well as self‐concept building experiences. Upon completion, a majority of the participants reported confidence in learning about and choosing an occupation, and clearer ideas about possible occupations for themselves. Implications of these results for career development practices and research are described.

Men Who Make Nontraditional Career Choices

A summary of research findings showed that men who choose female‐dominated occupations likely possess many of the same traits and characteristics often attributed to women in the same jobs. Contrary to stereotypes, men generally are comfortable with themselves and their masculine sexuality, although they score lower in Bem's masculine identity than traditional men. A framework for the process of men's nontraditional career choice is presented based on previous career development models for traditional careers plus a review of the empirical research literature. Implications for professional counselors and organizations are discussed.

POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF THE ONE-CHILD POLICY ON GENDER EQUALITY IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Notwithstanding the obvious advantages of controlling population growth and the probable problems with old-age security and female infanticide, the one-child program in China could have latent ramifications. It could drastically reduce the size and significance of the patrilineal lineage, promote the popularity of uxorilocal marriage, and encourage women to make nontraditional career choices. The sum of these effects could finally allow China to make major advances in achieving its unrealized goal of eliminating gender-based inequality.

Increasing nontraditional career choices in women: Relation of attitudes toward women and responses to a career intervention

This study examined whether 80 college women, grouped according to their scores on the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS; J. T. Spence, R. Helmreich, & J. Stapp 1973 Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 2, 219–220), were differentially affected by a videotape career intervention. The videotape was entitled “Women: Choices and Changes,” and it focused on career development, broadly defined. It was developed as part of Project Born Free. A variety of outcome measures were used, including a brief measure of career decidedness, a measure of the traditionality of the women's own career choices and of the career choices they selected for their hypothetical daughters. In addition, two measures of self-efficacy were used, the Vocational Self-Efficacy Scale (Hackett & Betz 1981) and the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale (K. M. Taylor & N. E. Betz 1983 Journal of Vocational Behavior, 22, 63–81). The results indicated that AWS scores were related to the traditionality of the careers chosen for the subjects' hypothetical daughters and to self-efficacy. Increases were found for the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale and on career decidedness. Careers chosen by the women for themselves and for their daughters were more non-traditional after the videotape intervention. These results are discussed and their implications for career counseling and future research are examined.

The Myth of the Double-Advantage: Black Female Managers

This article reports on interviews conducted with 25 middle- and senior-level black female managers in private-sector employment. Three hypotheses were examined: (1) the processes that sociologists and psychologists assume influence the nontraditional career choices of white women are not the same as those that influence black women; (2) contrary to popular belief, black women are not being promoted more rapidly than other, better qualified workers as a result of affirmative action; and (3) black female managers are likely to encounter the same limits to their mobility that anyone, regardless of race or gender, might encounter, and they are likely to encounter limits to their mobility on account of their race and sex. Each of these hypotheses received some support from this admittedly narrow database.