3
Gender Differences
Most studies of educational and occupational aspirations and the eventual attainment thereof have noted
that such choices are gender-typed (e.g., Danziger, 1983). That is, male and females tend to choose different status
attainment paths. Specifically in regard to occupations, adolescents tend to steer toward those which are
predominantly occupied by members of their own sex, although girls are increasingly more likely to cross such
gender-based barriers (Sandberg et al., 1991). Several studies have demonstrated that female adolescents aspire to
high-prestige occupations more than do males (Rojewski, 1995). Male and female college admission and subsequent
graduation rates over the past decade reflect the changing nature of gender differences in the educational and
occupational attainments in the United States, such that increasing proportions of women are seeking and receiving
college degrees. Prevailing social attitudes concerning women’s status attainment have, of course, changed over the
past several decades, yet the bases of female and male aspirations, specifically the family, which must receive greater
examination by researchers (see Gianakos, 1995). While the occupational and educational ‘participation’ rates of
women and men are becoming more similar, there is nonetheless a strong element of gender-based segregation
within those environments (e.g., representation of each sex in specific college majors, gender segregation by
occupational category).
Numerous studies continue to find that younger children still think of occupations in terms of being either
‘male’ or ‘female’ and to consider them within this context (e.g., Etaugh and Liss, 1992). According to Havighurst
(1983), children acquire a sense of gender identity from experiences within family, peer, and school experiences.
Clearly, the family context is central among these in regard to the formation of gender-based differences in status
aspirations or eventual status attainment. Of course, gender differences will exist within peer groups, in terms of
their composition, interactions, and other basic qualities. Peers and parents, in particular, are often presented in
juxtaposition, as they are often envisioned as competing entities in the lives of children and adolescents. Whether
this contrasting and competing relationship between the family and peer contexts exists, though, is a matter which
requires specific analyses. The nature of these variations will now be explored.
Convention