Doctoral Dissertation Research: Career and Family Patterns among Female Executives in Finance-Related Occupations

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This is an award under the Grants for Improving Doctoral Dissertation Research Program. The research will study career and family patterns of female executives in finance-related fields. Existing theories explaining why women make up a small proportion of higher management are reconsidered through an approach that takes into account the combination of events that make up turning points in women's lives. These turning points either sustain women in a career trajectory or redirect them in other directions. Detailed interviews from 58 senior female executives and 23 women who began promising careers in the same field but did not continue at the same pace or left entirely will be analyzed using optimal matching techniques, a form of sequence analysis. %%% This research will contribute to sociological understanding of the interrelations among work, family, and gender equality. Innovative methods of analysis will be refined so that they can be of use to social scientists studying career mobility. Findings will also be helpful to policy-makers concerned with ways to increase equality in the work place and to strengthen family relations. In addition to the scientific gains to be achieved by the research, this award will materially assist a highly promising student in completing research for the Ph.D. dissertation. Thus it contributes to the future scientific manpower of the nation and the thorough training of the next generation of social scientists.