Career plans of men and women in gender-dominant professions

This research investigated sex differences in the career plans of 557 men and women completing graduate training in the male-dominated professions of business, law, and medicine and the female-dominated professions of education, nursing, and social work. Content analysis was performed to determine the continuity, specificity, ambition, and accomodation of family responsibilities reflected in plans for 2-, 5-, 10- and 20-year points. Chi square analyses showed clear patterns of sex differences in the feminine professions. Except for child care, the plans of women in male-dominated groups were not significantly different from those of male colleagues. The findings are discussed from the perspective of role theory.     

A Study of Black and White College Women

In an examination of career aspirations, 101 black and 530 white college women were asked to indicate their occupational and educational plans, important considerations for career choices, and their attitudes toward combining the roles of career and family. Results indicated that women who planned careers in male-dominated occupations had higher career and educational aspirations than women who desired careers in femaledominated occupations. Black women who planned careers in male-dominated professions showed high levels of aspirations, planned more education than was necessary for the desired occupations, and perceived less conflict in combining the roles of career and family than their white counterparts. There were few differences between black and white women in their attitudes toward the traditional roles of men and women. Those choosing female-dominated careers, however, had more traditional attitudes regardless of race. Implications of these findings for the influence of occupational gender dominance on career aspirations are discussed.     

Career development and career choice in pioneer and traditional women

Two groups of college seniors were compared in an attempt to elucidate those factors affecting feminine career choice and career development. The sample consisted of 106 female Caucasian students enrolled at a large Southwestern university. Sixty-three of the subjects were majoring in traditional female fields, while the remaining 43 were majoring in male-dominated areas. Five instruments were administered to the subjects. Seven factors were found to distinguish significantly between the two groups of women. Of the seven, three factors pertained to feminine role perception. The remaining four were concerned with sex-role stereotyping and various aspects of family background.     

Women Who Choose a Man's Career: A Study of Women in Ministry

Fifty women who chose to pursue a male-dominated career, the ministry, were interviewed about components of career choice and professional development including sex and function of their role models and educational experiences. Sex-role orientation employing the Bern Sex Role Inventory and family data were also collected. Findings indicate a complex interaction of sex and function of role models with age and sex-role orientation of subjects.     

When career paths cease to exist: A qualitative study of career behavior in a crisis economy

Using grounded theory methodology, this study examines the ways young professionals describe their career paths in the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis. We interviewed a sample of 29 Greek women professionals (24 to 32 years old) to examine their career behavior during this recession. Findings reveal prevailing effects of professional identity and profession-consistent learning goals on participants' career behavior. Specifically, those individuals without a strong professional identity or profession-consistent learning goals are more likely to anticipate and engage in career activities unrelated to their professions, a group whom we refer to as Shifters. In contrast,     

Having it all? Combining work and family in a male and a female profession

Are women in a female-dominated profession more successfully able to combine work and family obligations than women in a male-dominated profession? To explore this question, a comparison was made between the family status and careers of 747 women librarians (a female-dominated profession) and those of 449 women MBAs (a male-dominated profession). It was expected that the librarians would marry earlier and have more children. This general prediction was not supported. Over half of both groups of women were married, and after controlling for age, there were no differences in number of children. However, many women without children in both groups reported that they would like to be mothers. This disparity between wanting children and not having them was more common for women MBAs than women MLSs. MBAs and librarians were about equally likely to have had job interruptions, but librarians were more likely to have worked part-time. Reasons for an interruption to full-time work were as likely to be for problems finding (full-time) work as for family responsibilities. Librarians' salaries were much lower, but job interruptions and part-time work had a more negative effect on the salaries of women in business. In sum, the data suggest that many of the women surveyed have not combined motherhood with a professional career and that it is probably somewhat more difficult to combine a family with a career in business than with a career in library science.     

The “feminine mystique” in male-dominated jobs: A comparison of attitudes and background factors of women in male-dominated versus female-dominated jobs

This paper examines various background factors plus success and work-related atttudes of 324 women as aggregated into one of three groups: those women working in male-dominated jobs, those in female-dominated jobs, and those in relatively sex-ratio balanced jobs. Overall results show that women holding male-dominated jobs are more likely to be older, better educated, have fathers with higher educational levels, and are more likely to be childless as compared to women in female-dominated jobs. Holding age and education constant, women in male-dominated jobs usually rated definitions of success as more important to their feelings of well-being than did women in female-dominated jobs. With these same constants, there were few differences in work attitudes among the three groups, but contrary to expectations, women in female-dominated jobs rated the importance of their work higher than did women in male-dominated jobs. The variables best predicting whether a woman held a male-dominated job were college attainment, problems related to sex discrimination, the age of the participant, her feelings toward achieving a very high salary, her feelings of the importance of her work, and her feelings about becoming an authority in her job.     

Reviewing psychologists' qualifications for career development practice in Australia

Vocational psychology and the practice of career development are important dimensions of the psychology discipline and profession. This paper contains an overview of Australian career development practice in light of recent trends, particularly the formalisation of career development practice among professions other than psychologists. Given the advent of professional standards for Australian career development practitioners, a review of postgraduate degrees in organisational, developmental and educational, and counselling psychology was conducted to determine their correspondence with the competencies presented in the Standards. The review found significant consistency with generic competencies. Degrees in organisational psychology provided the broadest correspondence, while degrees in counselling, developmental and educational psychology had lower levels of correspondence on specific competencies. The implications of the review are discussed in light of the evolution of the career development industry and psychologists' standing in this field.     

The Reflective Scribe: Encouraging Critical Self-Reflection and Professional Development in Pre-Health Education

Much has been said about the formative process that occurs via the “hidden curriculum” of medical education during which many students experience a disconnect between the professional values espoused within the formal curriculum and the implicit values communicated through interactions with peers and mentors. Less attention, however, has been paid to the formation of the future medical self that takes place during students’ premedical years, a time in which many undergraduate students seek out immersive clinical experiences —such as medical scribing— before applying to medical school. Despite the fact that medical scribes undoubtedly are affected by their clinical experiences, scribes are rarely offered opportunities to reflect on them. The authors contend that the developmental processes of medical scribes, especially those who intend on pursuing a career in the health professions, ought to be supported. This can be achieved, at least in part, through engaging in well-designed reflective sessions with other scribes. Encouraging students to reflect on their experiences can help them make sense of troubling events and give voice to the inconsistencies and value conflicts within medical practice that are so often ignored. The authors describe the development of their new Reflective Scribe program and offer suggestions for future directions.     

Evaluating a metacognitive and planned happenstance career training course for taiwanese college students

This study used a pretest—posttest, nonequivalent control group, quasi experimental design to examine the effectiveness of a 12‐week, metacognitive and planned happenstance career training course for Taiwanese college students. The treatment groups significantly increased their career competencies in metacognitive, cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions over the comparison and nonequivalent control groups.     

Sex-Labeling of Selling Jobs and their Applicants

Abstract

By use of the Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), students were classified in terms of their self-described sex-role personalities (e.g., masculine, feminine, or androgynous) as well as by their relative career interests in each of five distinct selling positions. Results revealed a strong desire on the part of the female students to invade male-dominated selling strongholds. But the reverse was not true. The findings are generally predictive of the broadening of the scope of interests of female graduates seeking entry positions in selling.     

Students' perceptions of female professors

This paper examines student attitudes towards academic women. The literature on females in male-dominated professions suggests that clients resent their authority, deny their competence, and accord them less prestige than men. One hundred and eighty one university students evaluated professors in terms of 21 semantic differential scales and an occupational prestige ranking instrument. Contrary to expectation, female professors were perceived as more competent than male instructors in both task and socio-emotional competence. Further, the males were not assigned a significantly higher prestige score. Despite Goldberg's (1968) conclusion that females are prejudiced against their own sex, the attitudes of the female students were the more favorable.     

Influences in the Decision‐Making Process for Careers As a Speech‐Language Pathologist or an Audiologist

This study consisted of data obtained from 297 surveys about career decision‐making influences for students and professionals in speech‐language pathology and audiology. Decision‐making factors were similar across both professions, with personal factors being the most influential. Employment and education factors were also critical in making professional decisions. Early course work played a significant role in the career paths of people in these professions.     

Bullying at work: Epidemiological findings in public and private organizations

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of bullying and harassment at work, to identify risk groups and risk organizations, and to investigate who the victims report to be their tormentors. Bullying and harassment are defined as situations where a worker or a supervisor is systematically mistreated and victimized by fellow workers or supervisors through repeated negative acts. However, to be a victim of such bullying one must also feel inferiority in defending oneself in the actual situation. Data from 14 different Norwegian surveys (N = 7986) are presented, encompassing a broad array of organizations and professions. The results show that bullying and harassment at work are widespread problems in Norwegian working life. As many as 8.6% of the respondents had been bullied at work during the previous six months. Organizations with many employees, male-dominated organizations, and industrial organizations had the highest prevalence of victimization. Older workers had a higher risk of victimization than younger workers. Even if men and women do not differ in prevalence of bullying, significantly more men were reported as bullies. Victims reported superiors as bullies as often as they reported colleagues as their tormentor(s).     

Stability and change in role innovation and life plans

Trends in women's labor force participation between 1967 and 1981 are noted as background to this 14-year longitudinal study of 117 women who graduated from college in 1967 and were studied in 1967, 1970, and 1981. The women represent a stratified random sample of the graduating class of 1967 from one large midwestern university. The three strata are role-innovators (women in male-dominated occupations, traditionals (women in female-dominated occupations), and moderates (women in occupations having 30 to 50% women). Samplewide changes are consistent with national trends: increased employment, increased role-innovation, greater educational achievement, and later and smaller families than expected in 1967. There was also a dramatic increase in perceived conflict between marriage and career. Within these trends, however, large parts of the sample showed strong consistency: 81% of the original role innovators and 69% of the original traditionals were still role-innovators and traditionals, respectively, in 1981. This longer term consistency overrode a great deal of temporary change in the traditional direction between 1967 and 1970, particularly for the role innovators and moderates. Much of this temporary shift was associated with early child rearing. Factors associated with increased role innovation and increased traditionality were the importance women gave to having a career, the relative priorities they placed on career vs family, their expectations of marriage-career conflict, and their expections of husband's acceptance of their career. Increased role innovation was also associated with attaining more education, not marrying, and having fewer children.     

Effects of Changing Proportions of the Sexes on Ratings of Occupational Prestige

Touhey (1974) has suggested that an influx of women into high-status, male-dominated professions will result in declining prestige and desirability for those professions. The present study attempts both a replication and an extension to examine results of changing sex ratios in low-status and female-dominated occupations. Replication of the previous finding and its predicted extension to high- status women's jobs occurred only with college sophomores; juniors and seniors generally did not respond to sex composition, although they did rate high-status men's jobs as even more prestigious with a larger proportion of women employed in the job. Results for the low-status jobs were less clear, possibly reflecting the distance of college students from such occupations. Unlike Touhey's, these results are not interpreted as predicting future occupational prestige, but only as reflecting current attitudes about women and men.     

Psychology in Medical Settings in Thailand

This article explores the development of psychology as a profession in Thailand, its challenges, and future trends. There are currently very few Thai psychologists who are active in the medical fields in comparison to other health care professions. Being held back by limited education and training, many psychologists see their future career as less than promising. The lack of professional licensing standards and dominance of psychiatry further limit their career advancement. However, tremendous opportunities await those who persevere to expand their roles beyond the traditional assessment, treatment, and research models. A small number of them have ventured out into unexplored territories such as behavioral medicine, AIDS counseling, health promotion, and prevention of mental health problems. There is a strong potential for Thai psychologists to make significant contributions in these areas. It is clear that higher standards of education and more rigorous training are needed if this goal is to be realized in the near future.     

Sources of influence on the professional development of psychologists and psychiatrists in Norway and Germany

Background: There are many professional psychotherapists, but no psychotherapy profession. The psychotherapists’ professions vary between countries, the most frequent being psychiatry and clinical psychology.

Aim: As these professions have different basic training and also may be impacted differently by other factors, we wanted to study potential differences as to perceived influences on their development as psychotherapists across career level, theoretical orientation, and gender.

Methods: More than 2500 Norwegian and German psychiatrists and psychologists reported data on their professional development in the DPCCQ/2000, a lengthy multi-part survey instrument developed within the ‘Collaborative Research Network’ of the Society for Psychotherapy Research. The four groups were compared for differences, and a series of multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the impact of profession on a variety of aspects of therapist experiences.

Results: Although a few therapist experiences (e.g. teaching, treating patients, institutional conditions) had a significantly different impact between the two professions, as a main effect, they only accounted for less than 1% or the variance.

Conclusion: Profession seems to have little influence on perceived development as a psychotherapist, and it is reasonable to conclude that other therapist qualities, often personal qualities, are more important for therapeutic processes and outcomes.     

Professors’ Behaviors and Attributes that Promote U.S. Women’s Success in Male-Dominated Academic Majors: Results from a Mixed Methods Study

High rates of attrition of women from male-dominated academic majors may stem from both individual-level personal attributes (e.g., lower confidence in skills; Sax et al. 2015) and non-supportive environmental factors (e.g., chilly climate; Blickenstaff 2005; Hill et al. 2010). Grounded in social cognitive career theory (Lent et al. 1994), the present study utilized a mixed methods approach to identify faculty behaviors and attributes that support women in male-dominated majors and help to prevent attrition. In Study 1, data from eight focus groups involving 23 senior women in male-dominated majors at a mid-sized U.S. Midwestern university were coded to identify common themes exploring why certain professors’ behaviors/attributes are useful to women in male-dominated majors. Results indicated that professors’ behaviors led to learning experiences that helped women create personal connections within departments and provided them with department or career-related information as well as opportunities to gauge/demonstrate their skills to combat the idea that they fit the incompetent-woman stereotype. In Study 2, survey data (n = 65) examined professors’ support, academic advising time, and percentage of female faculty within a department as buffers against the negative effects of sexism on women’s academic achievement, physical health, and social belongingness. Sexist events in the department were associated with women’s reduced sense of belonging, but academic advising time served as a buffer of this association. Overall, our results indicated that proximal environments are important and that professors’ behaviors that support women without singling them out were most helpful.