Gender Difference in Researcher Career Interest: The Effect of Sense of Belonging, Occupational Goals and Social Identity Threat

Men are more interested in a researcher career than women, and awareness about the gender imbalance within the Academia increases men's interest (Tellhed, 2013). This study aimed to examine what causes the increase in men's interest and impairments in women's interest towards a researcher career. Two hundred and eight (99 males, 109 females) students received information about the Academia as being gender imbalanced or in progress towards gender equality (or no information). Thereafter, the students' interest in a researcher career and their expectations of sense of belonging, social identity threat, goals and goal affordances in relation to the researcher domain and its community were assessed by self-reports. A gender difference in interest was only found on one interest-item, where men showed more interest than women. This could be explained by feelings of belongingness in the control group. Women across all conditions expected social identity threats as a researcher. This finding suggests that women can be discouraged from a researcher career because of expectations of negative treatment, judgments and stereotypes because of their gender. The manipulation had no effect and no other variables explained the gender difference. Alternative explanations are discussed due to the lack of result and non-effect of the manipulation