Gender, career choice and professional engagement: A pilot study
Investigators: Dr Helen M. G. Watt (Education), Dr Paul W. Richardson (Education), Assoc. Prof. Maryanne Dever (Women's Studies), Dr Jeannie M. Paterson (Law).
Project Description
While women currently account for significantly more than 50% of enrolments in undergraduate Law degrees, there is a marked early to mid-career attrition among female law professionals, suggesting a disjunction between initial career aspirations and subsequent professional experiences for these graduates. This pilot project investigates gender differences in the career aspirations and motivations of a sample of current Law students.
Our proposed project stems from the continued concern regarding why men and women frequently end up in different kinds of careers. Although women have been making gains in entering traditionally male-dominated professions, gender differences persist. For example, women are less likely to choose careers in maths, science, and technology-related fields, and more likely to leave them if they do enter. Researchers who are concerned with gender equity have pointed out that male-dominated professions tend to be those which are higher in status and salary. Resultant gender differences in earning potential are important because women are more likely than men to be single, widowed, or single heads of households; and therefore likely to need to support themselves and other dependents financially without assistance from a partner or significant other. In addition, women (and men) need to develop and deploy their talents and abilities in their work outside the home, since this substantially impacts their general life satisfaction and psychological well-being. Law provides a career context high in status and salary, in which increasing numbers of women have been entering but are not sustained in the career, and is therefore a particularly interesting initial domain for our project.
Aims
Our major aims in this pilot study which we later plan to extend to other professions, are to:
- contrast men's and women's career motivations among a surveyed sample of law students;
- contrast the extent to which they perceive a career in law will realise their motivations; and
- compare those ratings with the extent to which they perceive their nominated ideal career will realise these motivations.
The project will make several significant contributions:
- extend our understanding of why increasing numbers of women are choosing to study law;
- provide information regarding their career aspirations in the law or another profession;
- identify career motivations they perceive a career in law will or will not fulfil; and
- document gendered developments in career motivations and perceptions through the law degree, by contrasting first- and final-year candidates in a cross-sectional design.
This project is jointly funded by the Faculty of Law, the School of Political and Social Inquiry in Arts, and the Faculty of Education at Monash University.
You can read Maryanne and Jeannie's related opinion piece on 'Career Choice' here.