TY - JOUR
T1 - What's so special about stem? A comparison of women's retention in stem and professional occupations
AU - Glass, Jennifer L.
AU - Sassler, Sharon
AU - Levitte, Yael
AU - Michelmore, Katherine M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by Grant Number 5R01NR011988-02 from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NIH), and by Grant Number 5R24HD042849 awarded to the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. For additional details, contact Jennifer Glass; email: [email protected].
PY - 2013/12
Y1 - 2013/12
N2 - We follow female college graduates in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and compare the trajectories of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related occupations to other professional occupations. Results show that women in STEM occupations are significantly more likely to leave their occupational field than professional women, especially early in their career, while few women in either group leave jobs to exit the labor force. Family factors cannot account for the differential loss of STEM workers compared to other professional workers. Few differences in job characteristics emerge either, so these cannot account for the disproportionate loss of STEM workers. What does emerge is that investments and job rewards that generally stimulate field commitment, such as advanced training and high job satisfaction, fail to build commitment among women in STEM.
AB - We follow female college graduates in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and compare the trajectories of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related occupations to other professional occupations. Results show that women in STEM occupations are significantly more likely to leave their occupational field than professional women, especially early in their career, while few women in either group leave jobs to exit the labor force. Family factors cannot account for the differential loss of STEM workers compared to other professional workers. Few differences in job characteristics emerge either, so these cannot account for the disproportionate loss of STEM workers. What does emerge is that investments and job rewards that generally stimulate field commitment, such as advanced training and high job satisfaction, fail to build commitment among women in STEM.
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U2 - 10.1093/sf/sot092
DO - 10.1093/sf/sot092
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84888353156
SN - 0037-7732
VL - 92
SP - 723
EP - 756
JO - Social Forces
JF - Social Forces
IS - 2
M1 - sot092
ER -