Symphony Question: Does gender play a role in career choice?

After our successful Young People’s General Election, we’ve started asking weekly questions of students from our member schools around the UK.

We call these Symphony Questions, and it’s time for the results from Week 8!

The world recognised International Women’s Day last week, and so we wanted to get the thoughts of young people about the effect of their gender on the career they will go on to have. This week’s question involved over 2,000 students from around the UK.

Question: International Women’s Day is 8 March. Do you think being born a boy or a girl will affect the kind of job you have when you grow up?

Result: Age makes a big difference!

We looked at the data through a different lens this week, separating the results by year group. In looking at the data, it is clear that the students’ age had a significant influence on how they answered the question.

The younger students, particularly from Year 1 through Year 6, largely think that being born a boy or a girl will not have much of an effect on what job they will eventually have. In these years, ‘It will have no effect on the job I do’ is the clear winner, with an average of 68% of the vote.

Some students from Harrow Gate Primary had some insightful thoughts to share on the question. One clearly believes that gender is not relevant to how people are able to perform in their careers:

“Girls and boys can do the same jobs.”

Another Harrow Gate Primary student believes that times are changing, and while gender may have influenced career choice in the past, it shouldn’t anymore:

“It’s not like the olden days. Now anyone can do any job.”

It is important to note, as well, that throughout this age group, the margin by which that option wins becomes smaller, with a notable increase for ‘It will have some influence over the job I will do’ as the respondents get older.

In older years, there is a clear diversion from the opinions of the younger students. Starting in Year 7, the clear winner becomes ‘It will have some influence over the job I will do’, which received an average of 63% of the vote in Years 7-11.

What may be even more interesting, however, is to look at the change in popularity of the response ‘It will directly affect the job I will do’. Very few of the younger students chose this option, with percentages ranging from 0-8%. Among older students, on the other hand, there was a much higher response to this option, with percentages reaching up to 25% of students who think that being born a certain gender will have a direct impact on their future career choice.

Another notable trend is the percentage of students who answered ‘I’m not really sure’. Although this option did not receive overwhelming support in any year group, reaching a peak of 10% in Year 6, and consistently receiving 4-5% of the vote in Years 2-5, there is a distinct drop-off among older students. In Year 7 on, there was not a single vote for uncertainty. This suggests that young people’s impression of the role of their gender in their career choice, whatever that role may be, becomes fairly cemented as they get older.

What can we learn from these results?

While the message that younger students do not see as much of an impact of gender on their future career choice seems to be quite clear from these results, what is not as clear is the cause of that difference in opinion. Does this trend have to do simply with age? Will those same pupils in Year 1 change their mind several years from now? Or are we witnessing a shift in societal thinking with these results?

It is certainly possible that as people get older, they see more of an impact of society’s gender norms, and that in several years, the same survey would still find a similar divergence in age groups. However, it is also quite possible that these results indicate a change in the way young people think of gender roles.

This younger generation seems to be becoming more open-minded than those that came before, and their relationship with gender equality seems to be evolving from that of previous generations. These results may show that young people today are being raised to make choices for themselves that are not limited by being born a boy or a girl.

As a woman not much older than some of these respondents, I find an optimistic message in these results. Personally, I do not feel that my gender changes my career aspirations, but we cannot ignore the reality of the structures that are in place in our society. Currently, there are still many male-dominated fields in which women are underrepresented, including engineering, scientific research, and financial investment. These gaps are improving, but they still have an undeniable influence on society.

It can be difficult not to be discouraged by this reality, but I think that we can see a great deal of hope for the future in the responses to this week’s Symphony Question. If we continue to raise the next generation with the belief that they can pursue whatever career they want, regardless of what gender they are born, then we will make progress towards reaching greater equality.

Schools across Europe are closing because of Coronavirus. Do you think your school should close?

Our New Year’s Resolution to our membership is to help them come up with relevant, engaging and thoughtful questions to help get all pupils having their say. Schools usually come up with their own meetings, but we’re giving them additional questions if they’d like them.

Following the successful trial of this form in our General Election Question Series, for 2020 we’ll be recommending a blend of action-led & topical questions to ask each week.

Want to get involved or suggest a question? Send us an email at [email protected]