Misguided by others? Unpacking young women’s career aspirations

OECD data (Mann et al., 2020) suggest secondary school students continue to aim for careers within ten occupational fields, which has persisted in recent decades despite the emergence of new occupations arising, for example, from technological developments. This paper focuses on a post-school survey of the career aspirations of 1,339 young women in their final years of schooling at four schools in the southern Australian state of Victoria (Gleeson et al., 2022). The schools included: a co-educational outer metropolitan government secondary school located (n=266); a regional co-educational Catholic secondary school (n=521); a co-educational independent metropolitan P-12 school (n=100); and an inner metropolitan all-female independent P-12 school (n=452).

The theoretical frame of ‘possible selves’ is used to understand young women’s education and career aspirations (Markus & Nurius, 1986). The theory proposes that the young women’s possible selves are socially constructed, and that their social contexts shape their beliefs about what they would like to be in the future, which selves are more probable, and which are to be feared or avoided.

Findings show that 65% of young women who nominated a career sought career destinations within the 10 typical popular occupations. Nine out of 10 of these occupations are considered professional, requiring tertiary study (such as doctors, teachers and veterinarians). While some young women genuinely feel as though they have taken future jobs into consideration, questions arise as to their complex motivations for selecting jobs within the same narrow occupational fields.

Findings also show high levels of stress, lack of career direction and potentially negative external influences of their choices. For example, over a quarter of all female respondents (26.1%) often felt down or worried about choosing a career. Just over 39% were concerned about ever achieving a “real” career. Slightly more (40%) felt they had no career direction. A third (33.5%) did not know what careers best suited them, with a similar proportion (31%) not feeling employable.

A number of reasons are explored. For example, around one in five (21.5%) felt overwhelmed by the career information and choices that they faced (with 34.1% being neutral). A quarter (26.6%) of survey respondents believed that there are too many people going for jobs in their preferred career.

Even when very specific choices were made, many young women felt constrained in their abilities to make career choices. Consequently, this affected confidence in their decision-making and their future career direction and wellbeing. Over a third (34.5%) of young women who chose a career still felt anxious about it.

Career stress is also associated with relationships with others and in young women’s own career decision-making abilities and perceived obligations.

Young women’s career decisions are strongly influenced by others beyond school, with 49.1% making choices based on others’ expectations (e.g. parents/carers). Just over half (51.6%) worried that others would not approve of their choices. A similar percentage (54.6%) were making choices to please others. Just over half whose career choices were based on what others expected of them also felt they had no career direction.

Social background was also important. Over half (57.9%) felt they had fewer career choices because of who they are or where they come from. OECD data also indicates that backgrounds matter in young people’s career choices and aspirations.

The paper locates this data within macro, longer-term employment trends before examining the experiences of respondents at the micro-level of individual experiences. For example, it is speculated that the top career choices continue to be in the same fields because they still resemble some sort of linear trajectory - despite wider workforce changes.

The findings suggest a need to examine more closely the critical years of senior schooling when career choices are formed and the influences of career choices beyond school. It is argued that careers educators - and educators in general - need to engage in the changing workforce and to find ways of bringing these significant others (parents/carers) along the careers education journey.