Educational Pathways to Science and Other Careers for Academically Talented Women

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究项目的总体目标是确定越来越多的女性在专业、商业和科学领域从事职业的机会是如何影响有学术天赋的高中和大学女性以及更广泛的大学女性对大学专业和未来职业选择的决策过程的。我们将从内在兴趣因素中分离出科学职业中家庭和工作结合的感知困难的影响，内在兴趣因素可以说在决定大学专业和随后的职业方面发挥了重要作用。我们还将估计女性取得最小进步的科学领域（物理科学和工程）与女性取得重大进步的其他科学领域、商业和精英职业（即法律、医学、牙科和其他精英职业）之间的职业与家庭不相容程度的差异。我们将比较特定领域对职业和家庭之间实际（可能变化的）不相容的估计与女性在学校选择行为中揭示的职业和家庭不相容的看法。最后，我们将确定拥有强大的数学和科学课程的高中是否在引导女性走向科学职业方面做得更好，这些影响是否在教育生涯中持续存在，以及在过去的25年里，拥有强大的数学和科学课程的高中比例的变化是否有助于刺激追求科学职业的女性比例的增长。我们的研究对于正确理解女性在科学（特别是物理科学和工程）方面的不足以及对未来趋势的可能预测非常重要。公共卫生相关性：本研究项目的总体目标是确定越来越多的女性在专业、商业和科学领域从事职业的机会是如何影响有学术天赋的高中和大学女性对大学专业和未来职业选择的决策过程的。我们将从内在兴趣因素中分离出科学职业中家庭和工作结合的感知困难的影响，内在兴趣因素可以说在决定大学专业和随后的职业方面发挥了重要作用。我们的研究对公共卫生具有重要意义，因为在学术上有天赋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的更多了解可以导致政策的制定，以确保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.