Why Aren’t We There Yet? The Status of Research in Women’s Career Development

Abstract

The career development of women has been a longstanding topic of inquiry in vocational psychology. Two previous major reviews in this area consistently identified that women tend to experience more career barriers than men. This major contribution sought to extend this work by providing a third systematic review of the literature on women’s career development. We focused our review explicitly on the experiences of women rather than women compared to men. We seek to answer the question that has been asked for 50 years: Do we need a separate theory of women’s career development? Our findings suggest that women experience several barriers at various stages during the trajectory of their careers. We make the case that perceptions of career barriers are an integral construct to women’s career experiences and theoretical prepositions in vocational psychology should explicitly capture this construct in future investigations. We discuss implications for practice, training, and education.

Women and Career Development: Some New Answers, Many More Questions

“…A first and simple observation about our scholarship over these years is one of numbers: the initial pass through the literature by Fouad et al (2023) yielded 423 peer reviewed articles about "women's career development" in the last 25 years (and, following exclusion and focus criteria, 101 were included in this review). Even taking the broadest number into consideration, that translates into fewer than 20 articles per year (or, within the more restricted focus of this review, fewer than five articles per year in the primary publication outlets for research in vocational psychology).…”

“…Why so few? Why aren't we "there" yet, to borrow from the title of the Fouad et al (2023) review? The sheer numbers invite us to consider what we are studying, and why "individual and internal factors that influence the work and career choices of women across the lifespan" [this issue] has not taken a more prominent role in our inquiry.…”

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The review offered by Fouad et al (2023) provides a critical mirror on the literature on women and career development. In this reaction paper, I discuss three of the critical questions that are raised: Why aren't we "there" yet?

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“…It is a daunting task to consider the literature about women and career development over a quarter of a century. As a community of scholars and practitioners, we 1 are indebted to Fouad et al, (2023) for taking this challenge on, and for doing so in a thoughtful and rigorous way. Their work serves to shine a light on the path taken thus far and to brings attention to what yet needs to be done.…”

“…In taking us through this extensive terrain, Fouad et al (2023) offer a critical mirror that not only shows us what our scholarship has yielded by way of new knowledge, but also reflects where we have chosen to place our scholarly lens-and where we have not. It is important work that has been produced over these years, for what it says as well as for what it doesn't say.…”