Career representations in high school pupils and students in relation to gender characteristics

Abstract

We describe a study of career representations in school and university students in relation to gender characteristics. The sample consisted of 36 students of XI grade and 40 students of I year of high school. We tested the hypothesis about relationship of career representations with gen-der characteristics of the subjects and their stage of professional development. The methods we used were “career anchors” by E. Schein, “Psychological gender” by S. Bem, survey “Professional career ideals" by A.M. Sheveleva. The statistical significance level of results was 0.05. It was re-vealed that, despite both school pupils and students preferred achievements, wealth and social recognition as the content of the ideal career, there are differences between the samples. Pupils are more focused on the “General managerial competence” and “Security/stability”, the students –on “Service/dedication to a cause” and “Technical/functional competence”. Regardless of sex, school pupils with an increase of masculinity have enhanced value of ”Pure challenge” orienta-tion and lowered value of the “Mode of Life” ideal career. The female students with increased femininity have higher importance of such content ideal career as “Experience Acquisition” and “Professional Path”, the value of career orientation “Autonomy/independence” is increased.

Keywords

• career
• representation
• gender
• masculinity
• femininity
• androgyny
• “career anchors”
• ideals career