Educational Pathways to Science and Other Careers for Academically Talented Women

描述（由申请人提供）：该研究项目的总体目标是确定女性在专业、商业以及科学领域从事职业的机会不断增加，如何影响大学专业的决策过程以及有学术才华的高中和大学女性以及更广泛的大学女性群体的未来职业选择。我们将把在科学职业中将家庭和工作结合起来的感知困难与内在兴趣因素的影响分开，这些因素可以说在大学专业和后续职业的决定中发挥着重要作用。我们还将估计女性进步最少的科学领域（物理科学和工程学）与女性进步显着的其他科学、商业和精英职业领域（即法律、医学、牙科和其他精英职业）之间职业与家庭不相容的程度。我们将对职业与家庭之间实际（且可能正在变化）不相容性的特定领域估计与女性对职业与家庭不相容性的看法进行比较，这些看法反映在女性在校期间的选择行为中。最后，我们将确定拥有强大数学和科学课程的高中是否能更好地引导女性走向科学职业，这些影响是否会持续整个教育生涯，以及拥有强大数学和科学课程的高中比例的变化是否有助于刺激过去二十五年里从事科学职业的女性比例不断增长。我们的研究对于正确理解科学领域（特别是物理科学和工程领域）的女性短缺以及对未来趋势的可能预测非常重要。公共健康相关性：该研究项目的总体目标是确定女性在专业、商业以及科学领域从事职业的机会不断增加，如何影响有学术才华的高中和大学女性的大学专业决策过程以及未来职业的选择。我们将把在科学职业中将家庭和工作结合起来的感知困难与内在兴趣因素的影响分开，这些因素可以说在大学专业和后续职业的决定中发挥着重要作用。我们的研究对公共卫生具有重要意义，因为有学术才华的高中女性是健康相关领域未来科学家的主要潜在来源，对影响她们职业选择的因素有更多的了解可以制定政策，确保有足够的健康科学家供应，以满足美国未来的需求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of this research project is to determine how growing opportunity for women to have careers in the professions and business as well in science is affecting the decision process about college major and the choice of future career for academically-talented high school and college women as well as the broader population of college oriented women. We will disentangle the impact of perceived difficulties in combining family and work in a science career from the intrinsic interest factors that arguably play a strong role in the determination of college major and subsequent career. We also will estimate the extent to which career-family incompatibility differs between the areas of science where women have made the least progress (physical science and engineering) and other areas of science, business, and elite professions (i.e., law, medicine, dentistry and other elite professions) where women have made significant progress. We will compare field-specific estimates of actual (and possibly changing) incompatibility between career and family with the perceptions of women about career-family incompatibility that are revealed in the choice behaviors of women while in school. Finally, we will establish whether high schools that have strong curricula in math and science do a better job in pointing women towards science careers, whether these effects persist over the educational career, and whether changes in the proportion of high schools with strong math and science curricula have helped to stimulate the growing proportion of women who have pursued science careers over the past twenty five years. Our study is important for a proper understanding of the female shortfall in science (particularly in the physical sciences and engineering) and the likely prognosis for future trends. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The overall goal of this research project is to determine how growing opportunity for women to have careers in the professions and business as well in science is affecting the decision process about college major and the choice of future career for academically-talented high school and college women. We will disentangle the impact of perceived difficulties in combining family and work in a science career from the intrinsic interest factors that arguably play a strong role in the determination of college major and subsequent career. Our study has important implications for public health because academically talented high school women are a major potential source of future scientists in health-related areas, and greater knowledge about the factors that affect their career choices can lead to policies to ensure an adequate supply of health scientists to fill America's future needs.