Gender Roles and Women's Achievement-Related Decisions

Abstract

Occupational sex segregation continues to exist and the occupational career paths of women and men continue to differ. This article proposes a model to explain these persistent, gender-role linked trends, summarizes evidence to support the proposed mediating psychological mechanisms, and discusses the social experiences that shape gender differences on these mediators. In addition, the article reviews the economic and psychological costs often associated with the traditional female choices and proposes interventions aimed at achieving a more gender-fair social system that does not devalue traditionally female domains. The proposed model links occupational choices to expectations for success and subjective task value, which, in turn, are linked to gender-role socialization, self schemas, and anticipated role and task demands. The importance of subjective task value is stressed, as is the need to study women's achievement-related choices from the women's perspective.Differential participation of the sexes in employment and education is difficult to ignore. Although increasing numbers of women are working, women are still concentrated in the lower levels of the professional hierarchy and in female-dominated occupations, despite attempts to decrease discrimination. For example, since 1970 approximately 4 million women have entered the work force; 3.3 million of these have taken jobs as secretaries, nurses, bookkeepers, cashiers, and other female-dominated, supportive occupations (Hacker, 1986). Similarly, although there have been significant increases in the enrollment ofwomen in law, medicine, and business schools,

Instructional Quality and Attitudes toward Mathematics: Do Self-Concept and Interest Differ across Students' Patterns of Perceived Instructional Quality in Mathematics Classrooms?

“…These results align with previous research, suggesting that female students perceive less supportive feedback by their mathematics teachers [67] and perceive low opportunities to participate in classroom discourse [20]. Students who belonged to this "Low Quality" pattern also reported particular low levels of self-concept in math, which is associated with negative attitudes and emotions concerning their mathematics classes.…”

An examination of stereotype threat effects on girls’ mathematics performance.

“…Researchers have posited a number of potential explanations for gender differences in mathematics performance and for the underrepresentation of women in mathematics-and science-related careers, including biological factors (e.g., Benbow & Stanley, 1980;Geary, 1996;Scarr & Carter-Saltzman, 1982), social factors (e.g., Eccles, 1987;Eccles & Jacobs, 1986;Heller & Ziegler, 1996), and the interaction between biological and social factors (e.g., Halpern & Tan, 2001;Nuttall, Casey, & Pezaris, 2005). One of the key social factors that has been suggested as contributing to highachieving women's underperformance on mathematics tests is stereotype threat (Steele, 1997;Steele & Aronson, 1995).…”

Determining the Effects of Pre-College STEM Contexts on STEM Major Choices in 4-year Postsecondary Institutions Using Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling

“…These three observed indicators are highly related to each other based on high factor loadings (i.e., 0.77 , 0.83) and can be a set of math teacher motivation. Theoretically, these observed indicators can be considered the psychological elements of teacher motivation, which include teacher expectations, efficacy, and attainment value on the positive effects of teachers' attention, teaching methods, and enthusiasm for students' math achievement (e.g., Eccles, 1987;Feather, 1988;Wigfield & Eccles, 1992). Further, the three observed indicators, which are the responses of math teachers, reflect any one of three cognitive actions (i.e., expectation, efficacy, and attainment value).…”