Missing Men: New conceptual understandings of gendered educational choices

Over the past few decades, women have entered an increasingly larger part of the educational system and labour market, while men have continued to make gender-traditional choices. The representation of men in female-dominated educational fields and professions remains persistently low. We know too little about men's perceptions of female-dominated professions and the barriers for men’s entry into these educational and professional fields. Furthermore, research on gendered educational choices has primarily concentrated on explaining the persistence of gender segregation, with less emphasis on how changes in gendered perceptions may come about. 'Missing Men' will gain new insights into the barriers and opportunities specific to men's entry into female-dominated fields of study, concentrating on the potential for change in perceptions of gender-typed education and work. We aim to answer three research questions: (1) in what ways are assessments of skills, work, and qualities gendered, and what are the implications for educational choices? (2) What may promote change in gendered perceptions of fields of study, skills, and work? (3) What are the barriers and potentials specific for men’s entry into female-dominated fields of study? The methods employed in this project include in-depth individual interviews, factorial survey experiments, and the analysis of population-wide registry data. The project is organized into two work packages (WPs). In WP1, we will examine assessments of female-dominated work, in what ways young people’s perceptions of types of skills, work and qualities are gendered, and how this relates to their educational aspirations. This WP will combine qualitative interviews with factorial survey experiments. In WP2, we will use registry data to study what impacts non-traditional choices for men and women. We will also conduct interviews with men studying nursing and primary education to understand their pathways into female-dominated fields of study.

While women have spread out into a continuously larger part of the educational system, men continue to make gender-traditional choices, and the presence of men in female-dominated educational fields remains persistently low. There is an acute lack of knowledge about men’s assessment of female-dominated professions and of the barriers and potentials for men’s entry into these educational and professional fields. The international state-of-the-art research on gendered educational choices has drawn heavily on insights from the social psychological literature. This research has focused mainly on identifying the stabilizing factors in the gender segregation, documenting the persisting effect of deeply-rooted and slow to change gender beliefs. This project will build on and expand this work to develop a theoretical framework tailored for grasping change in gendered beliefs, and thus how gender non-traditional choices come about. We will produce new and needed empirical knowledge on the barriers and potentials specific for men’s entry into female-dominated study fields. By combining a diversity of methods and levels of investigation, we aim to advance the literature within this emerging field of research. We will fill a lacuna of knowledge on how gender-typing of skills, work and qualities influence educational aspirations, making use of both qualitative interviews and factorial survey experiments. We will add to the few existing studies of gendered assessments in the Nordic context, and how assessments vary with background and context. We will expand the literature by identifying which aspects of female-typed work constitute barriers to men’s entry into female-typed careers. Furthermore, we will use population wide registry data to study what impacts non-traditional choices for men and women, and interview men in nursing studies and primary education teacher studies about their way into female-dominated study fields.