The Role of Gender and Culture in Vocational Orientation in Science

Females and people belonging to ethnic minorities tend to be underrepresented in science occupations. The goal of this paper was to investigate the needs of students of different gender and ethnicity in terms of vocational orientation in order to tailor future interventions to their needs. This paper finds that students of different gender and cultural background differ in their preferences in terms of vocational orientation in science. Two studies were conducted: (1) secondary school students (N = 450) were asked about their current activities and needs in terms of vocational orientation; (2) university students' (N = 342) retrospective views on their vocational orientation were investigated. Among the secondary school students (1), we found no significant differences in science aspirations, when differentiating between students' culture and their gender. However, females with migration background tended to wish for information from different sources than other students (contacts with university, teacher feedback, i.e., more formal/professional sources). Male participants without migration background tended to rely more strongly on informal sources such as online video platforms. This study (2) confirmed the finding that more professional feedback would be beneficial. These findings suggest that vocational orientation in science should be more specific to the target group in order to reach those who are currently underrepresented in science.