Gender Differences In Aspirations And Attainment

A dynamic and contextualized account of the processes and mechanisms underlying gendered career decisions and attainment across the life course.

Two remarkable trends concerning women’s educational and labor market outcomes in modern Western societies can be observed. Firstly, in recent decades, women have been catching up with, and have even overtaken, men in educational attainment. Secondly, women continue to choose educations and occupations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) less often than men. This Research Topic will focus upon these gender-specific trends, with a view to analyzing (some of) their causes and consequences.

This book presents ideas on education, gender and intersectionality through a transdisciplinary frame by crossing disciplinary and methodological borders. Exploring the diversity of educational settings ranging from early childhood to adult education, it brings together scholars from various disciplines to discuss, deconstruct and problematize gender and education in relation to several themes in a comparative, intersectional, local, national, regional and international perspective. Each chapter approaches the topic in an intersectional and/or transnational manner and creates powerful gendered educational knowledge. Questions addressed in the book include: What are the challenges or barriers to gender-equal education? How can we understand the gaps between formal policies and educational practices? The chapters in the book illustrate how gender and education are relevant and needed concepts within the field of transdisciplinary research. The authors hail from a range of countries, such as Croatia, Indonesia, Turkey, UK, as well as the Nordic region, and they critically examine gender and education at all levels and in diverse sectors, and with varied lenses, such as neoliberalism in education, and the inclusion of newcomers and refugees. The work also critically investigates programs and pedagogical approaches, culture and values, knowledge and identity in teacher education. The book further addresses criticisms of Western and Anglophone bias around “white feminism” and the norm of white, male and heterosexual privilege.

"Take a moment to imagine a geek. A computer geek. Do you see thick glasses and pocket protectors? A face illuminated by a glowing screen, surrounded by empty cans of energy drinks? Bill Gates? Whatever trope comes to mind, it's likely a white or Asian man. As Cassidy Puckett shows in Define Geek, these are not just innocent assumptions. They are tied to underlying ideas about who is "naturally" good at tech, and they keep many would be techies, particularly girls and people of color, from achieving or even pursuing opportunities in tech. But Puckett is not just here to show us that anybody can be good at tech; she tells us how we can get there. Puckett spent six years teaching technology classes to first generation, low-income middle school students in Oakland, California, and during that time, she uncovered five technology learning habits that will set up all young people for success. She shows how to measure and build these habits, and she demonstrates that many teens currently unrepresented in STEM already use these habits; they are more ready for advanced technological skill development than assumptions about instinct might suggest. Redefining "instinct" reframes the goals of STEM education and challenges our stereotypes about "natural" technological ability. Our so-called leaky STEM pipeline is readily addressed by Puckett's five techie habits of mind"--

Annotation.

In this book some of the leading stratification scholars in the U.S. present empirical and theoretical essays about the institutional contexts that shape careers. Building on recent advances in theory, data, and analytic technique, the essays in this volume work toward the goal of identifying and assessing the processes by which a birth cohort is distributed in the stratification system, given their positions of origin in that system. Alan Kerckhoff's introduction situates the studies in this volume within the context of previous stratification research over several generations, making the book an invaluable resource for scholars and graduate students.