Doctoral Dissertation Research: Individual Beliefs and Occupational Gender Segregation

男性和女性继续在劳动力市场的不同部门就业，女性占据了声望、薪酬和权力较低的部门。这个项目研究了两种文化信息，个人持有的信念，性别模式(关于适当角色的信念和？基本性质?（男性和女性）和自我概念（关于自我的性别信念），激发了再现职业性别隔离的决策。使用一个独特的，美国国家科学基金会资助的纵向面板数据的学生来自四个机构（麻省理工学院，奥林，史密斯和马萨诸塞大学），共同研究者将研究性别图式和自我概念，以确定他们是否以及如何影响学生。毕业后18个月的专业选择和职业选择。分析包括三个部分：(1)性别图式和自我概念的共同建构及其随性别、种族和民族、性别认同、社会经济背景和学校的变化；（二）这些个人层面的信念能否预测专业选择和职业启动；（三）这些信念是否会导致工科学生的性别职业认同的发展。更广泛的影响本研究调查了为什么在过去四十年中，尽管平等主义的法律和文化要求急剧上升并广泛传播，但职业性别隔离仍然如此具有弹性。如果基于文化的自我观念确实是职业相关行为的有力预测因素，那么解决这种隔离问题要么需要培养对个人性别本质的反思？自我表现的行为。研究结果对未来几十年面临从业者短缺的性别类型职业具有启示意义，特别是招募女性进入STEM领域，招募男性进入护理和教育领域。此外，研究结果可能为K-12的努力提供见解，帮助学生形成自我概念和性别图式。传播计划包括学术出版物以及基于研究的建议，这些建议可能会引起多样性方案协调员、政策制定者和管理人员的兴趣，以便更好地招募代表性不足的学生进入性别领域。

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.