As part of efforts to become more interdisciplinary, socially embedded, and innovative, leaders of a large college of education reimagined a program originally designed to retain struggling students to target students interested in nontraditional educational careers (e.g., nonprofits). Researchers in this study explore reasons why this program has…

Context: The persistent low female participation in male-dominated trades and VET courses is not attracting a high level of public attention and policy action. There are determined, albeit ad hoc actions by advocates to raise awareness of the economic and social benefits that can result from increased female participation in the male-dominated…

Despite the fact that approximately half of high school physics students are female, only 21% of physics bachelor's degrees are awarded to women. In a previous study, drawn from a national survey of college students in introductory English courses, five factors commonly proposed to positively impact female students' choice of a physical science…

Children's occupational interests and their perceptions of the divergent occupational successes of women and men reflect cultural gender norms. Since language is a vehicle for transporting gender cues and gender norms, we tested the premise that children's perceptions of stereotypically male jobs can be influenced by the linguistic form used to…

The study examines the career decision-making of Swiss academic high school students opting for a career in a non-traditional, gender-typed area of work during the transition to higher education. Based on a longitudinal study, a qualitative study with 11 female students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and 13 male student…

In Texas, there is an increase in the enrollment of men of various ethnicities in nursing schools, especially Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) programs. As these men strive to complete the nursing education, they face many concerns that center on barriers that are encountered in what is still a predominately Caucasian and female environment. In…

This study examined the differences in the self-concept of students grouped according to their sex and the sex-intensiveness of their vocational programs. Students in programs nontraditional for their sex, regardless of their gender, held higher self-concepts than their counterparts in traditional programs. Males, on the whole, had more positive…

This study updated and extended the classic "fear of success" study conducted by Matina Horner more than 30 years ago. Horner (1970) asked college students to respond to a scenario in which "Anne" or "John" is at the top of her/his medical school class. Based on the negative responses of students to "Anne,"…

Investigated existence of gender differences in perceptions of availability of intrinsic and extrinsic job outcome factors in male-dominated, female-dominated, and sex-neutral occupations in undergraduate college students (N=216). Determined perceptions differed as a function of subject gender and occupational sex-type; importance of job outcome…

Explored how students choose careers, their attitudes toward vocational education, and whether they would consider enrolling in nontraditional vocational education program. Findings from 5,937 ninth graders, and an analysis of the continuing disproportionate enrollments by sex in vocational programs, suggest that nontraditional vocational…

Describes a study that identified factors that nontraditional and traditional completers of vocational education programs perceived as barriers in obtaining their vocational goals. Concludes that many school-related problems remain, and makes recommendations for further research. (NRJ)

Examined how students who completed either a traditional or nontraditional vocational education program perceived the assistance they received from school guidance counselors. Results suggest that many sources influence students' choice of program in vocational education. Guidance counselors seemed moderately helpful and supportive, although many…

A study was conducted to examine the effects on young women of reading about nontraditional role models in the sciences and engineering, and discussing various aspects of participating in science and engineering careers with a trained instructor. Subjects for the study were 153 female students enrolled in advanced, elective science courses (10th…

The present experiment failed to replicate a widely-cited sexist bias in people's evaluations of occupations that was originally reported by Touhey (1974). College students (N=303) did not downgrade the prestige of masculine professions or upgrade that of feminine professions when told that the proportion of other-sex (i.e., minority)…

This study examined differences in occupational aspirations of students grouped by sex and sex-intensiveness of vocational programs. Students in traditionally female occupations had the highest job aspirations. Females in male-intensive, female-intensive, and nonsex-intensive programs had higher aspirations than males in each of these groups.…