Career goals and the reality : A quantitative study of social work students' visions linked to the division of labor in a medium-sized municipality.

The aim of our study was to examine social work students’ career motives to apply for social work studies and conceptions about their future career in relation to their gender and compare it with the gender distribution for the most and least coveted jobs. The study was based on a quantitative method with two web-surveys, one distributed to social work students at Linnéuniversitetets two centres of learning in Kalmar and Växjö. The other web-survey was distributed to department and unit managers for a middle sized municipitality. The results were analyzed using Hirdman’s theory of gender contracts, Connell’s theory of hegemony and the career paths Kullberg describe. Our results show the career paths male social work students prefer are vertical and for female students horizontal. The result also shows that male students get their study choice questioned more often than female students. The results also indicate that female students prefer to work close to clients (or social work users) whilst men tend to want work as managers.