Choice of profession as a career cul-de-sac? : differing chances of advancement in men's and women's occupations

Abstract

"In theory, all professions are nowadays open to women as they are to men. Nonetheless little has changed over the last 30 years in the gender structure of professions - despite great efforts on the part of politicians and the economy to make male professions attractive to girls and despite girls' partially better performance at school. Women still tend to study and learn typical women's professions in the service or social fields while men still tend more towards scientific, technical or industrial professions.<br> Yet the gender-specific choice of professions has its consequences: As has already been proven empirically, remuneration in a profession drops with the share of women engaged in this profession with the result that those employed in women's professions earn particularly little. In this study, we examine how the gender-specific choice of a profession affects the chances of advancement of women and men in typical women's and men's professions. To do this, we use data from the representative survey 'The changing world of work and learning' ('Arbeiten und Lernen im Wandel' (ALWA)), which surveys persons born between 1956 and 1988. First, we analyse how professional mobility developed in the first 10 years after entering paid work in women's, in men's and in mixed professions. What becomes apparent is that employees in women's professions very often continue in their initial profession. However, formal advancement is achieved equally as often within one's initial profession in all types of jobs. However employees in men's professions use a change of career more often in order to move up the career ladder.<br> In addition, we examined at what point of time advancement can be realised and found out that the discrepancy between women's and mixed/men's profession only becomes apparent after roughly four years and only then shows statistically significant differences. After ten years, about 20 per cent of employees in women's professions and about 30 per cent of employees in men's professions have achieved formal advancement. After that, we observed in multivariate analyses how the employment for both sexes in typical professions had an effect on chances of advancement. We found evidence that men have better chances of advancement, even in women's and mixed professions. Only in men's professions do the advancement opportunities between the sexes not vary. Finally, we discuss the reasons for the differing career opportunities and their implications for choice of profession." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku)

Cite article

Vicari, B. & Matthes, B. (2017): Berufswahl als Karriere-Sackgasse? Unterschiedliche Aufstiegschancen in Männer- und Frauenberufen. In: S. Lessenich (Hrsg.) (2017): Geschlossene Gesellschaften : Verhandlungen des 38. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in Bamberg 2016 (Verhandlungen der Kongresse der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, 38), p. 1-9.