Gender Differences in Career Decision Making: The Content and Structure of Preferences

Itamar Gati*, Samuel H. Osipow, Michal Givon

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

62 Scopus citations

Abstract

To identify possible sources of the observed differences in the career choices of women and men, three facets of career preferences were examined: the relative importance attributed to career-related aspects, the within-aspect preferences (i.e., desirable characteristics of occupations), and the structure of aspects derived from these within-aspect preferences. The career-related preferences of 2,000 young adults who were in the process of making their career decisions were analyzed. These career-related preferences were elicited during their dialogues with a computer-assisted career guidance system. The analyses revealed (a) only small gender differences in the relative importance of the aspects, (b) considerable gender differences in the within-aspect preferences, and (c) certain gender differences in the structure of aspects. The findings and their possible theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)204-216
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Counseling Psychology
Volume42
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1995

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