Doctoral Dissertation Research: Individual Beliefs and Occupational Gender Segregation

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SES- 1029668Mary Blair-LoyErin CechMaria CharlesUniversity of California-San DiegoMen and women continue to be employed in different sectors of the labor market with women occupying sectors that have less prestige, pay and power. This project studies how two culturally-informed, individually-held sets of beliefs, gender schemas (beliefs about the appropriate roles and ?essential natures? of men and women) and self-conceptions (gendered beliefs about the self), inspire decision-making that reproduces occupational gender segregation. Using a unique, NSF-funded longitudinal panel data of students from four institutions (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Olin, Smith and University of Massachusetts), and the co-investigator will study gender schemas and self-conceptions to determine if and how they influence students? major selections and their career decisions 18 months after graduation. The analysis consists of three parts: an examination of (I) the co-construction of gender schemas and self-conceptions over time and their variation by gender, race and ethnicity, sexual identity, socio-economic background and school; (II) whether these individual-level beliefs predict major selection and career launch; and (III) whether these beliefs lead to the development of gendered professional identities among a subsample of engineering students. Broader ImpactsThis research investigates why occupational gender segregation is so resilient, despite the steep rise and broad dissemination of egalitarian legal and cultural mandates over the last four decades. If culturally-informed beliefs about the self are indeed strong predictors of career-related actions, addressing this segregation would require either fostering reflexivity about the gendered nature of individuals? self-expressive actions. Study findings have implications for sex-typed professions facing a shortage of practitioners in the coming decades, particularly the recruitment of women into STEM fields and men into nursing and education. Also, findings may provide insights for K-12 efforts that reach students as they form their self-conceptions and gender schemas. Plans for dissemination include scholarly publications as well as research-based recommendations that would possibly be of interest to diversity program coordinators, policymakers and administrators for how to better recruit underrepresented students into gender-typed fields.