How Gender, Parenthood and Other Social Factors Influence the Career - Research Proposal Example

How Gender, Parenthood and other Social factors influence the career one is to choose College Career or occupational choices are influenced by a lot of factors; these include social identity, the context of life, educational attainment, and an individual’s personal attitudes. Many of these factors fall into three major categories, these include; social factors, physiological factors, and economic factors. Physiological factors include the well-being of the individual, a good example is physically handicapped individuals may not have the opportunity to qualify for particular jobs that are heavily demand physical fitness, these jobs include; various military positions, for example infantry men. Economic factors on the other hand are highly influenced by the financial capability of an individual. It is in this broad category that factors such as educational attainment of individuals falls in. Economic factors determine whether an individual can be able to access education or training on the job or career they choose to follow. Additionally, other economic factors such as payment, wages, or salary also influence a person’s choice on career. Social factors on the other hand play a very major role in influencing an individual’s career choice, the society greatly influences an individual’s way of life because it’s the greatest basic unit of socialization (Worell, 2001). It is in the social realm that we get to identify ourselves as well as identify others; we get to know what is good or bad in society through learning the social norms and values of society. Various forces in society influence an individual’s choice of career and this may include social identity, stereotypes, societal expectations, as well as societal values. These as well as many others constitute what is referred to as the societal or sociological factors that influence an individual’s choice of career (Worell, 2002). This essay shall look at how social identity as well as the above named social factors as well as social factors not mentioned above influence an individual’s career choice additionally, a clear evaluation of my choice of research instrument which is the questionnaire and how I shall use it to address the research question, and a good literature review all of which shall help build a good impression of how career choice, work, and employment are related to gender, parenthood and other social factors. Gender is the whole range of characteristics differentiating femininity and masculinity. It is usually socially constructed and categorizes individuals in society to as either male or female. Society puts careers in society as either male endowed careers or female associated careers (Brown & Lent, 2008). Before the dawn of the 19th century, males assumed the productive roles while the women assumed the reproductive roles. Hence, women were more likely to stay in the homes and act as naturists to the children as well as do the domestic chores, however, men were more involved in activities that involved going out more to look for ways to fend for the family (Worell, 2002). However, with the industrial revolution, females begun to take up more male dominated careers and this changed the perception in society that particular jobs are better suited for males other than females. The opposite has also been witnessed, for a very long time; particular jobs have been identified to be female dominated, for example, hairs dressing jobs, fashion, and design jobs have been identified with the female for a very long period of time. However, this has changed over time and we now have more males perusing these careers and competing effectively with women in these lines of industry (Özbilgin & Malakh-Pines, 2007). A cross comparison of militaries jobs in different countries, a career path that has been greatly identified with the males, there are great changes over the years, with more women taking up ranks in the militaries and despite their gender perform very well in the various career positions they occupy in the military. Parenthood is another social factor that greatly influences an individual’s choice of career, according to the father of sociology Emile Durkheim, man is usually born tabularasa, meaning empty, it’s is up to the various units of socialization in society to fill this empty space in man with the norms and values of society (Brown & Lent, 2008). The first and most basic unit of socialization that an individual encounters during their childhood is the family (Schreuder & Coetzee, 2001). It is in the family that an individual acquires language that is the most advanced means of communication among all animals; it is further after acquiring this language that an individual is able to learn other values and norms of society (Worell, 2002). This learning and process of being taught encompasses what is generally referred to as parenthood. Parenthood plays a very significant role in influencing the career on chooses to pursue (Özbilgin & Malakh-Pines, 2007). Parents have perceptions about particular career paths and it is these perceptions that they pass down to their children during socialization. In a long period of time it was common to find the children of a lawyer becoming lawyers, or the sons and daughters of a business man joining in the family business and later on becoming business men themselves. Parents influence the career choices of individuals and it is reported that a majority of students joining higher institutions of learning choose courses not mostly because they have a passion for those courses but because their parents or older siblings prefer those particular courses for them (Schreuder & Coetzee, 2001). Hence, a majority of people end up taking career paths they themselves have no passion for. Stereotypes are socially constructed perceptions that create an idea of how a phenomenon, activity or group of people is or behave. A majority of the available stereotypes are not true and at times cause a lot of controversies in society. Stereotypes about particular career paths can greatly influence the career path one is to choose, for example, the stereotype, that women are emotional, hence, taking up defense positions or careers may not be a perfect suite for them may greatly lower moral of some other the women and may opt not to take up such career paths (Gatrell, 2005). Social identity on the other hand is plays a very great role in influencing an individual’s choice of career, particular individuals identify themselves with rich or well able social classes hence, would not prefer taking up careers that are deemed in society to be associated with lower classes (Brown & Lent, 2008). Additionally, those who see themselves in society to as belonging to the lower classes strive their level best to make sure that they get to pursue careers that are majorly associated with the upper class in an attempt to try and elevate their status as well as improve their standards of living. My choice of research tool for this research is the questionnaire, a questionnaire is a structured document that has questions that when read probe the reader to respond to the questions by giving answers. I have chosen this tool of research because it utilizes a very limited period of time to gather data that is later going to be analyzed and processed to become vital and valuable information. Additionally, Questionnaires are less expensive if compared to other tools of research that would cost more as well as demand more time and planning (Thomas, 2003). Because am dealing with research on social issues, the questions set in my research tool i.e. the questionnaire are open ended questions. With open ended questions, I hope to retrieve as much information about the topic asked to the respondents. Unlike short and structured questions where the respondent only responds with a yes or a no, open ended questions allow the individual to further elaborate on the answer they are giving, hence, giving additional and valuable information that would otherwise influence the research results (Thomas, 2003). In addition, leading questions have been greatly avoided; leading questions are questions that lead a respondent to a particular answer. Questionnaires are a very vital research tool, this is because they hold a particular advantage over the other sampling tools, and are mainly used in qualitative marketing research as well as social research like the one am conducting. It is majorly beneficial because it allows for the opportunity to gather a lot of information from a large range of numbers (Gatrell, 2005). However, its adequate construction is very important for the outcome of the research. Incorrect ordering of questions in the questionnaire as well as incorrect questions might affect negatively the outcome of the research (Thomas, 2003). Pretesting is usually carried out to make sure that the questionnaire is capturing the indented correct response from the respondents. It involves using a subset target population and issuing the questionnaires to them repeatedly but at a controlled interval. Literature Review Poon and Teo(1994), have critically used more than 9 factors to elaborate how career choices are chosen by individuals. The factors they used include; payment, working conditions, the relationship developed by other workers, marketability of the job, the long term benefits of the job, societal influences such as parenthood and stereotypes. Brenner (1996) conducted a research where he discovered that people choose careers that would involve them working for organizations and this is because working for organizations gives them the opportunity to further develop their skills, have higher income, and offer much more job security than working for other institutions like the government and other private investors. He attributes this line of thought to society, stating that a majority of individuals get this notion from the family background where4 they are socialized and this discourages them from becoming entrepreneurs (Gatrell, 2005). Conclusion This paper is meant to elaborate on the various social factors that influence an individual’s choice of career, in the first paragraphs are identified other types of factors that influence an individual’s career path however the paper puts special emphasis on social factors. It also elaborates on my choice of tool of research, here; it critically analyzes the advantages of using questionnaire for this kind of research giving reasonable explanation to why it’s the best research tool for this kind of research. It also gives a brief overview of the type of questions that shall be used in the research i.e. open ended questions and shall also involve pretesting to make sure that the questionnaires are working effectively. Bibliography: BROWN, S. D., & LENT, R. W. (2008). Handbook of counseling psychology. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley. Top of Form GATRELL, C. (2005). Hard labour: the sociology of parenthood. Maidenhead, Open University Press. Bottom of Form ÖZBILGIN, M., & MALAKH-PINES, A. (2007). Career choice in management and entrepreneurship a research companion. Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar. Top of Form SCHREUDER, A. M. G., & COETZEE, M. (2001). Careers: an organizational perspective. Lansdowne [South Africa], Juta Academic. Top of Form THOMAS, R. M. (2003). Blending qualitative & quantitative research methods in theses and dissertations. Thousand Oaks, Calif, Corwin Press. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form WORELL, J. (2002). Feminist Perspectives in Therapy Empowering Diverse Women. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons. Top of Form WORELL, J. (2001). Encyclopedia of women and gender: sex similarities and differences and the impact of society on gender. San Diego, Calif, Academic Press. Bottom of Form Read More