Self, Career, and Gender Issues

This chapter aims to: demonstrate the role of individual differences; identify how issues of the self, such as self-efficacy and self-esteem, can influence women’s career choice and career outcomes; discuss self-discrepancy theory in relation to gender role conflict in the workplace; evaluate if high self-esteem and self-efficacy can be advantageous to women working in male dominated occupations and industries; describe how internalised self-view, may contribute to gendered occupational segregation; and discuss the concept of the psychological contract and job satisfaction.

Career Promoters

This chapter aims to: discuss the complexities involved in mentoring and networking for women; identify how mentoring and networking can be advantageous in supporting women’s careers and aid women in terms of career development and progression; and illustrate how women may be disadvantaged in the workplace, due to a gender divide in terms of access to mentors, female role models, and appropriate networking opportunities. These issues are especially issues for women working in male dominated occupations and industries.

The Computer Games Industry

This chapter aims to: provide the reader with an in-depth look at the persistence of gendered occupational segregation, through a discussion of the relatively new industry of computer games; highlight how important this new sector is in terms of cultural and economic impact in countries throughout the world, including the UK and USA; and provide an overview of the situation of women working in this industry and reasons given for their low representation in the industries workforce.

Male Dominated Industries

This chapter aims to: look at the current position of women working in the SET sector from higher education through to the workforce, using data from the UK and USA as examples; consider previous research looking at the lack of women in the sector as a whole and some industries, such as engineering in particular; focus on the construction industry, one of the most gender segregated occupations and working environments (the construction site), in order to examine gendered occupational segregation; provide readers with an in-depth look at women’s underrepresentation in the ICT sector; discuss strategies for including and attracting more women to the computer science and technology occupations, proposed by researchers globally; and highlight why it is important for women to be involved in the creation and production of technology, as well as users and consumers.

Final Thoughts and Concluding Comments

Why women are underrepresented in certain careers has been a pertinent question for career researchers and scholars interested in gender equality issues for decades. Researchers have been particularly interested in the lack of women in science, engineering, and technology careers, as well as those with high mathematics content. Throughout this book, the authors have highlighted why gendered occupational segregation is an issue for both gender equality and essential in addressing the skills shortage in some occupations. They have aimed to give readers an overview of key areas to consider in assessing gendered occupational segregation. Importantly, the authors wanted to highlight the multifaceted variables involved in perpetuating and reinforcing gendered occupational segregation, especially for women in science, engineering, and technology careers. They have demonstrated how a multiplicity of interacting influences shape women’s careers. In particular, this book has emphasised the role of psychological, organizational, and social factors in understanding career roles and trajectories. Many books have looked at women’s underrepresentation in the ICT and SET industries; however, this book has taken into account not only these male dominated industries but has also included other male dominated industries such as construction, and the new industry of computer games, in order to understand the reasons behind this underrepresentation.

Work Life Balance Issues

This chapter aims to: provide an overview of the issue of work life balance through a look at the masculine work practices of the long hour’s culture, inflexibility work environments, and presenteeism as a cultural norm; demonstrate how work and career development is structured around men and men’s lives without taking into account how work practices impact individuals (predominantly women) with caring responsibilities such as childcare or looking after elderly parents/relatives; it explores how parenthood in particular impacts the careers and career development of women, especially those in male dominated occupations; and discusses the research on women who do not have children. Women who do not have children are often overlooked when looking at women in the workplace. The decision whether or not to have children due to career aspirations is much more of an issue for women than men as having children is more likely to impact on the working lives of women. The chapter also shows how ‘choice’ between career and parenthood perpetuates gendered occupational segregation and certain occupations and industries are less sympathetic to the needs of working mothers.

Progression Aspirations and Leadership

This chapter aims to: discuss prominent barriers to women’ career progression and development; demonstrate how senior women face a double bind, in that they need to adopt masculine traits in order to succeed in management and leadership roles, but are viewed negatively for behaving in masculine and therefore unfeminine ways; debate that view of management as masculine as persisting, in societies and organisations; explore how women are disadvantaged in the workforce; and discuss how gendered occupational segregation perpetuates.

Career Development, Occupational Choice, and Organizational Culture

This chapter aims to: discuss the concept of career motivation; outline the dominant theories for career development and occupational choice; debate how organisational culture can disadvantage women in the workplace and maintain gendered occupational segregation; identify how organisational culture, career motivation, organisational identity, and organisational commitment interlink; review how the interplay between the self, environment, and other external factors reinforces and perpetuates gendered occupational segregation; and discuss how women’s career choice is constrained by societal and cultural expectations, based on gender.

Stereotype, Attitudes, and Identity

This chapter aims to: look at gendered expectations and stereotypes; identify what is viewed as gender appropriate behaviour that contributes to the barriers women face in terms of their careers; consider how an individual’s gender role attitude can influence career choice; discuss the dominant theory in the area, social role theory, and how this is an important theory when looking at women’s roles within the workplace especially women working in gender incongruent occupations and industries, as the theory is concerned with gender stereotypes and gender role expectations; and discuss the role identity plays in career development and choice.

Engendered Workplace Segregation

This chapter aims to: give a clear understanding of gendered occupational segregation; demonstrate why it is an important issue for women today especially in terms of the persistent gender pay gap; discuss both horizontal and vertical segregation and how this impacts women in terms of pay, promotion, opportunities and society, through a lack of utilizing the whole of society’s workforce; and discuss men who work in female dominated industries and how men can benefit by their minority status, with an emphasis on the teaching profession. To give the reader a deeper and richer understanding of gendered occupational segregation outside of the SET sector, this chapter focuses on the UK’s finance sector. This sector is a particularly relevant and interesting sector to add to the discussions, as in both the UK and the USA, women hold an approximately equal percentage of the workforce as a whole, yet they are concentrated in the low paying, less prestigious jobs, and at the lower echelons of the sector.