Girls on top –
or not
• One in three girls and young women says gender influenced careers advice
• Only one in five was encouraged to pursue a traditionally “male” career
• Less than one in three got enough information on the pay implications of career choices
New research published by Girlguiding UK today has revealed that careers advice for young women remains strongly prejudiced by gender. The survey showed 35% girls aged 14-26 believe being female has influenced the types of careers they are encouraged to follow.
Nearly two-thirds of the girls aged 16-17 yrs (62 %) thought there was not enough information about how much you could expect to be paid in different careers, rising to 85% among those aged 22-26yrs.
The findings suggest modern careers advice continues to affirm old-fashioned gender stereotypes. Girls say they are twice as likely to be actively encouraged to pursue more traditional female careers (34%) such as teaching and childcare as to be directed towards new opportunities in jobs that tend to be associated with their male counterparts (18%).
Over three-quarters of girls said the reasons young women are deterred from entering male-dominated professions is largely down to lack of proper information (78%). Over two-thirds said girls tend to be concerned about possible discrimination from colleagues (69%) or from employers (68%). A lack of positive role models working in what are perceived to be traditionally male environments was also mentioned by 68%.
In choosing future careers nearly six out of ten girls (57%) received information about going into teaching and over two-fifths (43%) about working in childcare. Conversely less than a third were told about the opportunities to work in IT (29%) or business and entrepreneurship (28%), only a fifth were informed about engineering (21%) and fewer than one in 10 received enough information about construction (9%) or plumbing (6%).
The good news is that more than nine in ten girls thought providing equal careers advice for both sexes could be achieved through better training for teachers and careers advisers (95%).
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