Girls limit their career prospects ‘by just going for worthy jobs’

...while boys chase the big salaries

TeenAge girls ‘self-limit’ their choice of career because they only consider ‘worthy’ jobs, a study has found.

They want posts they can ‘feel good about’ – while boys focus more on high salaries, it said.

The Oxford University research found sixth-form girls are more likely than their male peers to be concerned about lifestyle, job security and whether the work is ‘worthwhile’.

experts said the trend may be a relic of old gender stereotypes in which men were expected to be the main breadwinners.

The study authors pointed out that girls may be limiting their horizons at an early age as they consider jobs with informal entry processes such as lowpaid work experience or internships. They said more work needed to be done on improving girls’ confidence to consider high-powered careers that may have more formal entry routes.

Yesterday, Karen Parker, a management consultant who advises independent girls’ schools, said the culture surrounding many well-paid jobs could be putting girls off.

She told the girls’ Schools Association conference: ‘generally speaking, women do have other reasons why they want to work. And salary i think is for a long time a key driver for a man.

‘When [girls] look at the environment that surrounds those jobs [with high pay] – it’s not as attractive to them as some other areas. And quite often that might be because it’s male dominated, because it’s not an environment that they’d like to be in.’

She added: ‘Traditionally we’ve always looked to the man as being the breadwinner. That’s changing but it could be an underlying reason.’

The survey, carried out by Oxford University’s Careers Service, examined nearly 4,000 sixthformers in a range of schools.

Researchers found boys are more confident about their prospects, while girls show greater anxiety about their ability to land a good job. Both genders already perceive the world of employment as one where men are paid better and face better prospects.

Careers service director Jonathan Black, who will present the findings at the Gsa conference today, said: ‘Sixth form girls have lower confidence about their career and, compared with boys, are more concerned about each aspect of job application, and are more interested in careers that offer job security, in a cause they “feel good about”.

‘This has the knock-on effect that girls may be self-limiting their choice of careers, especially because the types of jobs they seek often have informal entry processes – via networking or low and unpaid internships, for example.

‘We are exploring ways to intervene and equip school pupils to improve their career confidence and are piloting a new programme, ignite, as one possible solution.’ The research follows a similar Oxford survey of university graduates last year which revealed a ‘gender gap’ in the jobs attained by male and female students after leaving university.

The study found that career ambitions for sixth-form girls’ are significantly more influenced by lifestyle factors and finding a job deemed ‘worthwhile’.

The main focus for boys, on the other hand, is salary.

However, academics pointed out that the desire by girls to do worthy work could lead them to one well-paid profession – medicine.