Voci di donna: le traiettorie femminili tra progetti e stereotipi in un’iniziativa di orientamento universitario

Gender influences the youth’s choices leading them to educational and professional paths oriented by the role expectations interiorized in childhood. Therefore it becomes essential to analyse the interactions among gender and other cultural, socio-economical and subjective elements which characterize the adolescent identities taking in to account the transition from school to work. The project “Youths and work” has been conceived in the frame of the guidance activities of the Department of education, humans sciences and intercultural communication of Arezzo with the aim to enable the female students (attending first year of university and the secondary schools) to choose more knowingly their paths. Starting from the assumption that the majority of students attending the university courses are women, the meetings tried to examine the work representations of female scholars. Furthermore, some privileged witnesses, during a specific meeting, described their educational and professional paths highlighting both the positive and negative aspects concerning stereotypes. In this essay we’ll refer to these meetings during which we have tried to expose the possible distorted views and prejudices that may affect the life plans of the female students