Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- I Introduction
- II Transitions and Global Change
- III Individual Decision Making
- 6 ‘It Was Not My Choice, You Know?’: Young People's Subjective Views and Decision-Making Processes in Biographical Transitions
- 7 From Paradigm to Paradox: Parental Support and Transitions to Independence
- 8 Job Attitudes and Job Aspirations in a Changing Labor Market: Germany, 1991–2006
- 9 Escaping the Gender Trap: Young Women's Transition into Nontraditional Occupations
- IV Mapping Diversity and Change
- V Interventions and Policies
- Index
- References
9 - Escaping the Gender Trap: Young Women's Transition into Nontraditional Occupations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- I Introduction
- II Transitions and Global Change
- III Individual Decision Making
- 6 ‘It Was Not My Choice, You Know?’: Young People's Subjective Views and Decision-Making Processes in Biographical Transitions
- 7 From Paradigm to Paradox: Parental Support and Transitions to Independence
- 8 Job Attitudes and Job Aspirations in a Changing Labor Market: Germany, 1991–2006
- 9 Escaping the Gender Trap: Young Women's Transition into Nontraditional Occupations
- IV Mapping Diversity and Change
- V Interventions and Policies
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Despite the fact that women have gained much in terms of educational attainment in recent decades in Switzerland, their occupational opportunities still lag far behind those of men. A major factor that accounts for the inequalities between the sexes in the Swiss labor market is occupational sex-segregation (Buchmann & Kriesi, 2008; Charles, 2005a; Charles & Grusky, 2004). The unequal distribution of men and women between occupations is to a large degree responsible for women's lower pay, lower upward-mobility chances, and fewer opportunities for continuous training and tertiary-level further education (Buchmann, Sacchi, Lamprecht, & Stamm, 2007). Occupational sex-segregation has been revealed as a highly stable phenomenon (Buchmann & Kriesi, 2008 Charles, 2005a; Gottschall, 1995). Women continue to choose from a narrow range of occupations and crowd into a few female-dominated occupations characterized by inferior rewards and prospects (Brown, Eisenberg, & Sawilowsky, 1997).
This raises the question of how young women manage to avoid the “gender trap” at the time when they are selecting educational programs and making career choices. In particular, we need to better understand what supports women in choosing non-female-typed occupations (i.e., the incumbents of which are either predominantly men or equally men and women). Typical examples are journalists, photographers, legal professionals, and medical doctors, to name just a few. In contrast, the incumbents of female-typed occupations are predominantly women (e.g., office clerks, primary school teachers, nurses, and sales workers).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Transitions from School to WorkGlobalization, Individualization, and Patterns of Diversity, pp. 193 - 216Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
References
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