Women's Career Choices Research Articles

Analisis Budaya Patriarki Dalam Pemilihan Karir Mahasiswi Tingkat Akhir Pada Universitas Sahid Surakarta

This study examines the influence of patriarchal culture on the career choices of final year female students at Sahid University Surakarta. Using qualitative methods, data was collected through in-depth interviews with seven main informants and two supporting informants. The results showed that patriarchal culture significantly influences the career choices of female college students, with men dominating important positions in academic and professional environments. Female college students face limited career opportunities in education and social fields, while leadership roles are dominated by men. While reproductive health services are generally adequate, the quality of off-campus facilities needs to be improved. Women also feel less safe in public spaces and their participation in public activities and economic decision-making remains limited. This research suggests universities provide mentoring programs and leadership training for female students, offer diverse internship opportunities, and promote gender equality through educational campaigns and supportive policies. This research is expected to provide new insights into the influence of patriarchal culture on women's career choices.

The Impact of Gender Stereotype on Womens Career Choice and Relevant Factors

Women have always been treated unfairly in society because of their gender. Society often has biases on the working and studying ability of female. Gender stereotype, which is the origin of these bias, may significantly affect behavior and cognition of women. This suggested that the fact of women and men showed different career patterns might be influenced by gender stereotypes. These types of biases are not only explicit, but also can be implicitly associated to peoples mind. Both explicit and implicit stereotypes may cause negative impacts on career choices of women, as women might believe themselves as untalented in specific fields, which are referred to the masculine fields. People live in a social world, so that when they betray the gender stereotype, they might feel threatened on their social identity. Although gender stereotypes may all have negative effects towards all womens selection of career, the impacts can have a variety of extents under different conditions. Most previous studies mentioned in this report are cross-sectional studies and did not include interventions. Therefore, the comparison between distinct influential factors and the dynamic changes of stereotype across different periods remain unclear. In future research, longitudinal and intervention studies should be conducted to further understand the negative impacts of gender stereotype.

What motivates young Arab Muslim women to choose nursing as a profession: A cross-sectional study.

This study examines the impact of nurse uniforms, the coronavirus pandemic, and the image of nurses and the nursing profession on the career choice of young Muslim Arab women in nursing, with a focus on policy implications. The global nursing shortage poses significant challenges, including in Israel. Attracting young Muslim Arab women to nursing careers is vital. Understanding how nurse uniforms, the pandemic, and perceptions of nurses and the nursing profession shape their career decisions can inform policy interventions. A cross-sectional study utilized digital questionnaires administered to 200 Muslim Arab women aged 20-30 in Israel. The study adhered to the EQUATOR checklist for cross-sectional studies. Only 29.2% of participants expressed interest in studying nursing. Findings revealed a positive correlation between the pandemic's impact and intention to pursue nursing. A linear regression analysis shows the impact of the white uniform, the image of nurses, and the image of the profession on the choice of a career in nursing. The study emphasizes the significance of nurse uniforms, the image of nurses, and the image of the nursing profession in shaping young Muslim Arab women's career choices in nursing. Policy interventions should raise awareness about nursing roles, expand responsibilities, and highlight nurses' contributions to society. Strategies to attract young Muslim Arab women to nursing careers should address nurse uniforms, the image of nurses, and the image of the nursing profession. Policy interventions should prioritize diversity, promote positive images of nurses and the nursing profession, and raise awareness of nursing roles and contributions among young Muslim Arab women.

Women in Energy Sector in Nigeria: A Survey of Gender and Leadership in the Workplace

Studies have also shown that women account for a significantly smaller number of workforce in the industry; they constitute less than 22% of employee and just 5% of Boards of Directors (BOD) making the energy sector one of the least gender-diverse sectors in the economy, even thougha much direr female representation is assumed to exist in the technical and field roles. According to Solanke (2019), “although the industry has begun to appreciate the value of gender balance and how it impacts the populace,we need to see how the Nigerian Government is taking a more active role in trying to push gender balance as actively as it does local content policies.”There are various disadvantages to the low level of female participation in the industry. First, energy companies have smaller number of highly qualified candidates to choose from when filling positions, especially in the middle and higher ranks, because many talented women either never join the industry or drop out prematurely. Second, companies inevitably miss out on higher quality of teamwork, diversity of perspectives, and creativity in solving technical and business problems unlike others with larger percentages of female employees. Third, the industry’s relative lack of gender diversity, particularly in the senior ranks, hurts its reputation as a first career choice for women. Left unchecked, this can create a vicious circle that could lead to the industry finding it progressively difficult to recruit women across board.

Advice for women considering a career in medicine: A qualitative study of women physicians' perspectives.

Research has explored the problems that women encounter during a medical career; however, the advice that experienced women physicians would give to women who have not yet entered the field is needed to reveal how the medical work landscape is evolving and to provide real-world narratives to help career seekers make informed choices. By eliciting women's perspectives on their medical careers by asking them what advice they would give to aspiring women physicians, we aimed to reveal areas for improving career satisfaction of women physicians and to inform those who advise women considering a medical career. In this qualitative study, we used a phenomenological approach to conduct semi-structured one-on-one interviews with 24 women physicians to query the advice they would give to women contemplating a career in medicine. Thematic analysis of interview transcriptions revealed 10 themes that women physicians communicated as being important to consider before deciding to become a physician. Although some advice had a cautionary tone, encouraging and practical advice was also conveyed. The most abundant themes concerned the centrality of patient care, a passion for practicing medicine, and the importance of planning. Other key topics included family and friends, self-reflection, life balance, finances, ethics, maintaining presence, and two overt cautionary statements. Interviews revealed that meaning and purpose derived from a medical career and maintaining work-life balance are valued by some women physicians. Participants were encouraging in recommending medicine as a career choice for women, while highlighting some challenges.

Journalism as profession helping women in conflict to move beyond victimhood discourse: A case study of Kashmir

Kashmir, the northernmost valley of Indian territory, is an acknowledged conflict area reeling under continuous violence for the past three decades. It is more in focus due to militancy, civil unrest, and human rights violations that have created difficult situations for the women of the Kashmir valley. They are usually portrayed as submissive and bound to conservative roles. While on one hand, their security of life and dignity is of prime concern, their education and professional development often take a backseat. Despite several odds and unstable circumstances, these women are striving hard to emerge as strong personalities. As Journalism empowers the masses with information and builds public opinion, it is crucial to have female contributions in this profession as their perspectives can’t be presented by men. Media in Kashmir provided women a platform to express themselves and help them prove their identities and move beyond victimhood discourse. This paper is an attempt to understand how journalism has emerged as a career choice for women from Kashmir and also aims to document their roles in breaking the traditional stereotypes by moving beyond the conflict and registering their identities as media professionals.

Graduate Student Women's Perceptions of Faculty Careers: The Critical Role of Departmental Values and Support in Career Choice.

While the number of women in undergraduate and graduate chemistry programs has increased in recent years, women remain under-represented and excluded in the ranks of faculty in chemistry higher education. This marginalization results from not only fewer women being offered faculty positions but also fewer women applying for these positions. To investigate the reasons why faculty positions are causing so many women to turn elsewhere for employment, a survey was designed based on the literature themes surrounding women’s career choices, interviews with the current graduate student women in chemistry programs, and our previous work. The survey was grounded in social cognitive career theory (SCCT), and data were analyzed through a QuantCrit lens. Despite the existing literature focusing on the impact of having children on women’s career decisions, the desire to have children did not appear among either the top priorities or the most important factors in predicting whether any of the 130 survey respondents were interested in a faculty career. Instead, faculty career interest was related to themes of overwork, high expectations from departments, and expected department emphasis on research despite an individual’s interest in teaching and mentoring. Furthermore, women expressed a strong interest in maintaining work–life balance but low expectations for their ability to obtain a position that would allow it. They also reported a desire to work for a department that values mental health and diversity and supports its community members but similarly low expectations for their ability to find a department that shares these values. These themes suggest that chemistry departments must make fundamental changes regarding what is tangibly valued and rewarded within their systems if they wish to reduce the exclusion of women in faculty positions.

Lack of ambition or lack of support? Diverging career experiences of men and women explain the persistence of gender bias

AbstractIn this study we explore possible causes for the differential career success of women in academia. We do this by testing the content of organizational narratives about plausible reasons why women are less likely than men to advance in their academic careers, against the self‐reported experiences and career choices of women and men in the organization. We compared content‐coded narratives (N = 84) with quantitative self‐report (N = 661) data. Both data sets were collected around the same time, taking care that different members of the organization contributed to each of these two data sources. First, we report the qualitative data (Study 1). These revealed the organizational narrative about gender differences in academic careers. On the one hand, people in the university acknowledged the sexist treatment of women, but on the other hand, they failed to note that this “chilly climate” might adversely impact the careers of women in the organization. We report the quantitative data in Study 2. This revealed no support for the validity of this narrative, which maintains the pervasive belief that women are less interested in, and prefer to “opt out” from, an academic career. Notably, we found no actual differences between female and male academics in their self‐reported motivations. However, women did report having made more difficult life choices and having received less support from the organization for their careers. Together, these findings reveal blind spots in organizational narratives and point to additional measures that can be taken to ensure equal career opportunities for all employees.

Çocuklarda Sosyal Destek Kaynakları ve Kadın Kariyerine Yönelik Tutumlar Arasındaki İlişkilerin İncelenmesi

It has been stated for many years that the career development process should be approached in a developmental context. In this respect, it was predicted that early life experiences can affect both subjective career development and attitudes towards the careers of others. In the present study, the association between primary school students' attitudes towards women's career choice and having a career and social support resources was examined. The research group consisted of 194 primary school fourth grade students. The research group had a homogeneous distribution in terms of gender (97 males, 97 females). The mean age of the research group was 9.89 (SD = .54). The Attitude Towards Gender-Based Career Choices Scale and Social Support Appraisals Scale for Children and Adolescents were used as measures. According to the findings of the correlation analysis, attitudes towards women's career choice were negatively associated with perceived social support from family and teachers. There was a positive and significant relationship between the attitudes of women towards having a career and the perceived social support from their friends. Structural equation modelling showed that gender and perceived social support from friends significantly predict attitudes towards women's having a career. It was determined that the attitudes towards women's career choice were only associated with perceived social support from the teacher. The research presented empirical findings that will enable the development of attitudes towards career choice and having a career in early life to be approached in the context of both gender and social support.

Gendered and Racialized Career Sacrifices of Women Faculty Accepting Dual-Career Offers

Dual-career hiring is crucial to cultivating gender equity in the professoriate. Women are more likely than men to be in an academic couple, therefore institutions that do not use dual-career hiring systematically disadvantage women in faculty hiring. Yet, institutional resistance to dual-career hiring is not the only obstacle hindering women in academic couples from entering and progressing in the faculty ranks. Women also make decisions about their employment within a broader social context where gendered norms privilege men’s careers. Gendered norms and gender expectations pressure women in heterosexual couples to make choices that prioritize their partner’s career. In this article, I analyze couple and individual interviews with nine heterosexual faculty couples of color to explore how women make career sacrifices when accepting dual-career offers. I argue that liberal and post-structural feminist theories are insufficient for understanding the career choices of women of color and illustrate how intersectionality is a useful analytical lens for shedding light on racialized factors informing their decisions. The findings extend past understanding by elaborating on not only how women’s position type (e.g., tenure-track vs. clinical) and rank (e.g., tenured vs. not tenured) are seen as negotiable, but also how women sacrifice their institutional and departmental fit. For women of color, these career sacrifices are racialized in ways that are detrimental to their inclusion and job satisfaction. The findings shed light on how gendered career decisions and institutional norms converge to perpetuate women’s underrepresentation in the tenure system and full professor ranks.

FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN'SCAREER CHOICE AND SELF-EFFICACY: EVIDENCE FROM KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN

The research is based on the women's career choices in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.The main focus of the research is to judge the perception that women of Peshawar hold about different occupations, her choice of choosing her career, and to which extent she is influential in choosing her career. The study is carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, especially Peshawar. Data is primary, and descriptive statistics are being used on the questionnaire.Two portion questionnaires are developed for the study. The study suggests that fathers influence female career choices. Most of the females in the telecom sector and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa prefer job security in the job sector.

Forced or voluntary reluctance or voluntary preference to work? Women in hotel industry: evidence from Sri Lanka

PurposeThis paper aims to understand why women in Sri Lanka are reluctant to work in the hotel industry.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a qualitative approach to gather in-depth information from existing women employees and prospective women employees and thematic analysis used as an analytical strategy.FindingsThis research identified a particular woman's career choice in the hotel industry is the outcome of a series of complex challenges and opinions. Second, these challenges include individual, societal and organisational factors and revealed how those factors affect women's career choice either reluctant voluntarily or by force or by their preference. Finally, parental influence is also a challenge that has supportive (prefer to work) or hindering (reluctant to work) effects on their children's career.Research limitations/implicationsAs the sample size is small, extensive research is warranted.Practical implicationsThis research suggested two practical implications: should create a women-friendly environment at the hotel industry and educate women that they have many opportunities to explore their careers in the hotel industry.Originality/valueThis study has provided new research avenues and this would be the first known qualitative review directly focused on existing and potential women employees in the hotel industry.

A discourse analysis of career experiences of women in the developing country

The efforts to reduce the widened effects of structural inequality for women in South Africa have resulted in varied experiences (Burns, Tomita, & Lund, 2017). The study problematised the unresearched and not well articulated social construct within the career experiences of women working in a telecommunication company in South Africa. This article argues that the meaning ascribed to the socio context and equity policy can better describe the dimension of the broader issue of gender inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. The study contributes to discourse analysis methods where discourse analysis was used to explain the experiences of three women who are senior managers with at least ten years of experience. The discourse-based understanding of the experiences of women in this study was reframed into and within the interactions of equity policy deliberation, societal factors and the organisational context model. These interactions allowed interpretation of the career choice for women and what it means for personal development. The model of career experience depicts strong alternative views on a career path for women. The results of this study provide unique findings for justice regulation in the workplace for women in South Africa.

Literature Reflections on Career Women Development

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals foster the need for gender equality which opened up the windows for enhancing women career development. Women's career development is more complicated than men. The various internal and external barriers, such as family and related responsibilities, role in life, employment, the surrounding environment, traditions, and stereotypes, which facilitate and limit women's career choice and growth. The purpose of this research was to analyze the obstacles that women face in advancing their careers to senior management levels. Additionally, to gain an insight into the reasons why there are fewer women in management/leadership positions as well as finding out the factors that affect women's ability to advance to higher levels. Extensive analysis of extant literature was conducted whereby conclusions were drawn from the previous studies’ findings.

The Incompatibility of Motherhood and Professional Women's Football in England.

There has been an advancement of professionalisation of women's football globally. Professional women's football in England has grown exponentially since the inception of the Football Association (FA) Women's Super League in 2011. This article offers an examination of the gender-specific needs of women as professional footballers, focusing specifically on the distinctive aspect of maternity policy. Sportswomen often feel compelled to make the difficult decision between motherhood and an athletic career. Contracts have become an essential component of the work-life of professional women footballers. However, these contracts pose questions regarding organisational intentions and motivations. This study draws on 30 semi-structured interviews with professional women footballers in England. Our key considerations include contracts, employment, motherhood, and athletes' bodies. This examination will develop our understanding of the complexities associated with professional football as a career choice for women.

Women in Leadership and Their Influence on the Gender Diversity of Academic Plastic Surgery Programs.

Women seldom reach the highest leadership positions in academic plastic surgery. Contributing factors include lack of female role models/mentors and lack of gender diversity. Studies show that female role models and mentors are critical for recruiting and retaining female surgeons and that gender diversity within organizations more strongly influences women's career choices. The authors therefore sought to determine the current gender diversity of academic plastic surgery programs and investigate influences of gender and leadership on program gender composition. A cross-sectional study of U.S. plastic surgery residency programs was performed in December of 2018. Genders of the leadership were collected, including medical school dean, department of surgery chair, department/division of plastic surgery chair/chief, plastic surgery program director, plastic surgery faculty, and plastic surgery residents. Gender relationships among these groups were analyzed. Ninety-nine residency programs were identified (79 integrated with or without independent and 20 independent). Women represented a smaller proportion of academic plastic surgeons in more senior positions (38 percent residents, 20 percent faculty, 13 percent program directors, and 8 percent chairs). Plastic surgery chair gender was significantly correlated with program director gender, and plastic surgery faculty gender was significantly associated with plastic surgery resident gender. Although not statistically significant, female plastic surgery chair gender was associated with a 45 percent relative increase in female plastic surgery residents. Women in leadership and gender diversity influence the composition of academic plastic surgery programs. Gender disparity exists at all levels, worsening up the academic ladder. Recruitment, retention, and promotion of women is critical, as such diversity is required for continued progress in innovation and problem-solving within plastic surgery.

Why Are Women Underrepresented in the American IT Industry? The Role of Explicit and Implicit Gender Identities

Gender inequality in the IT profession is an acute issue with major individual, societal, and national implications. In this study, we build on the individual differences theory of gender and IT and extend it to account for subconscious processes that may drive women away from IT university majors and IT career choices. We specifically theorize on how the asymmetric roles of explicit and implicit gender identity facets impact the major selection of men and women students and affect their decisions to pursue the IT profession. To do so, this study introduces the concept of implicit gender identity, defined as the degree to which men and women subconsciously, automatically, and uncontrollably associate themselves with the masculine and feminine gender groups, respectively. We obtained data from 185 pre-major selection university students by means of a survey and the Implicit Association Test. The findings revealed that implicit gender identity was a significant predictor of IT major and career choices for women but not for men university students. Explicit gender identity had no influence on IT major and career choices for men or women university students. Nevertheless, men’s and women’s IT major and career choices appear to be similarly influenced by normative pressures. IT skills and IT work experience also impact such choices. Ultimately, this study shows that implicit gender identity can be a factor that drives women university students away from the IT profession and contributes to the gender gap in the field.

Family status and women's career mobility during urban China's economic transition.

BACKGROUNDIn contrast to the historical experience of Western welfare states, where social and family policies help create more integrated public–private spheres, marketization in China has presented a case of sphere separation. This phenomenon has important implications for the dynamics of gender inequality in economic transition.OBJECTIVEThis article examines how family status is associated with women’s career mobility in reform-era urban China and the impact of family on women’s career choices across different reform stages.METHODBased on retrospective data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2008, we adopt discrete-time logit models to examine the effects of marriage and childbearing on women’s upward mobility, the risk of labor market exit, and how the effects vary over time.RESULTSChinese women in the workforce are adversely affected by marriage and having dependent children. They are more likely than men to experience (involuntary, in particular) job exit to fulfill their roles as wives and mothers and less likely to move up in the career ladder. This pattern is more prominent as the economic reform proceeds.CONCLUSIONMarketization has adversely affected Chinese women’s career outcomes by increasing work–family tension after the work unit (danwei) system and socialist programs that supported working women were scrapped.CONTRIBUTIONThis study is one of the few empirical studies to attempt to explain the widening gender gap in China’s job market from the perspective of family using the two-sphere separation framework. The framework originated in Western family studies but has been adapted to suit the context of urban China.

Exploring career choices of Emirati women in the technology sector

PurposeThe study aims to explore the factors that influence Emirati women's career choice in the UAE. This study contributes to the influence of context in career choices by investigating how Emirati women chose information technology (IT) as a profession through the lens of the social cognitive career theory.Design/methodology/approachThis study undertook in-depth interviews with 21 Emirati women working in technology in the UAE. The study considers women's career choices at three levels, i.e. from an individual, organisational and national context perspective.FindingsThe key findings include identifying the importance of national context in influencing career choices among other factors such as family centrality, desire to be seen as a role model, company reputation and government policy.Practical implicationsThe study has wider implications for women's career choices in other contexts. The findings highlight the challenges women face, such as a lack of role models and family centrality, which need to be considered in recruitment policies and practices in other national contexts.Originality/valueThe originality of the study is its contribution to the literature developing understanding of the influences on women's career choices in the Emirates. While previous studies have identified the role of patriarchal influence on women's careers, we have less understanding of the importance attributed to individual factors such as being perceived as a role model within their family and to society. Similarly, the literature provides limited evidence of the influence of factors such as government sponsorship and company reputation.

Career development of women principals in Lesotho: Influences, opportunities and challenges

In this paper, we present findings from a study that explored career development of women principals of high schools in Lesotho. The aim of the study was to understand how women principals construct career development experiences by looking specifically into how they choose careers in teaching, how these careers transition from teaching to principalship, and what career advancement opportunities exist in a particular context. Through a qualitative narrative inquiry, we conducted in-depth interviews with eight women principals on their personal and professional lives. The findings revealed that family played a significant role in influencing women's teaching career choices, while transitions from teaching to principalship were influenced by levels of readiness and desire to implement change and to improve student outcomes. Opportunities of career advancement included self-initiated study which improved qualifications, taking advantage of chances to perform leadership roles, as well as self-confidence and self-drive to actively seek promotion.