1. Leaky pipeline: the effect of sexism on career choices and well-being of male and female university students
- Author
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Fantinelli, Stefania, Esposito, Ciro, Dasci, Esra, Ciftci, Esma Esen, and Sulla, Francesco
- Subjects
FOS: Psychology ,University Extension ,Social Psychology ,Community Psychology ,Developmental Psychology ,Psychology ,Higher Education ,Social and Behavioral Sciences ,Education - Abstract
Career choices are often influenced by one's gender and by the prevalence of same-sex or opposite-sex people in a field of study (Correll, 2001). Research found that women in male dominated areas (i.e. in STEM areas) face phenomena such as glass ceiling (Powell 1999) and glass cliff (Sabharwal 2015), while men in female dominated areas (i.e. psychology, educational science, etc.) experience an inverse phenomenon, called glass escalator (Williams, 1992). Moreover in male dominated areas women are often affected by the phenomenon called Leaky pipeline (Blickenstaff, 2005): a metaphor that alludes to the progressive abandonment of scientific careers. These phenomena highlight that perceptions and experiences of sexism can influence the career choices of men and women. Another variable that influences career choices in men (Leaper & Van, 2008) and women (Leaper, Farkas & Brown, 2012) is gender typicality: the extent to which an individual perceives themselves as similar or different from other people of their own gender. In addition, the perception of living in a sexist environment can also impact well-being (Fischer & Holz, 2010). The effects of sexism on career choices and people's well-being may also depend on specific psycho-social variables, such as mattering (Bonhag & Froese, 2022): the feeling of having value; and parental congruence (Woo et al., 2021): the degree of agreement of the children's choices with the positions supported by the parents. Finally, demographic variables such as socio-economic status (SES) may play a role in conditioning the career choices and well-being of men and women (Manuel et al., 2020). On this basis, the main hypothesis of our study is that experienced sexism, sexism attitudes, perceived sexism in the field and gender typicality have significant effects on perceived self-efficacy in career decision making and perceived well-being. Moreover we hypothesize that these effects are also mediated by two variables: the congruence of the choices with the suggestions of the parents and the feeling of mattering. Finally, differences between men and women studying in male-dominated areas and female-dominated areas will be examined.
- Published
- 2023
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