Experts from different countries in the fields of developmental and social psychology, human development, biology, education, and sociology draw on multi-wave longitudinal data on the gender-related variables that influence occupational outcomes. Together, the studies bring a variety of perspectives, theoretical models, and cultural settings to bear on the book's central questions. Further, the book examines the implications these results have for policy, suggesting which circumstances may be most conducive to promoting a more comprehensive and realistic understanding of gender differences in career choice and persistence. Detailed explanations of study design will serve as a resource for future researchers in this area.
Dr. Helen M. G. Watt (Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia) received her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2002 for which she received national and international awards. She has subsequently received early career researcher awards both in Australia and overseas. Helen has served on the Faculties of Macquarie University, the University of Sydney, University of Western Sydney, and the University of Michigan. She has been active in professional associations including executive and leadership positions in the Australian Association for Research in Education, and New South Wales Institute for Educational Research. She holds editorial responsibilities for the Journal of Experimental Education, Equal Opportunities International, and the Australian Journal of Education. Her interests include motivation, mathematics education, gendered educational and occupational choices, motivations for teaching, teacher self-efficacy, and research methodology.
Dr. Jacquelynne S. Eccles (McKeachie Collegiate Professor of Psychology) received her PhD from UCLA in 1974 and has served on the faculty at Smith College, the University of Colorado, and the University of Michigan. In 1998-99, she was the Interim Chair of Psychology at the University of Michigan. She also chaired the MacArthur Foundation Network on Successful Pathways through Middle Childhood and was a member of the MacArthur Research Network on Successful Pathways through Adolescence. She was SRA (Society for Research on Adolescence) program chair in 1996, has served on the SRA Council, and is now Past-President of SRA. She was also Program Chair and President for Division 35 of APA, and chair of the NAS Committee on After School Programs for Youth.
Her awards include: the Spencer Foundation Fellowship for Outstanding Young Scholar in Educational Research, the APS Cattell Fellows Award for Outstanding Applied Work in Psychology, SPSSI's Kurt Lewin Award for outstanding research, the Thorndike Life Time Achievement Award from Division 15 of APA, the Hill Award for Life Time Achievement from the Society of Research on Adolescence, the Mentor Award from Division 7 of APA, The Wei Lun Lectureship Award from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and an Honorary Doctorate from The Catholic University of Leuvan, Belgium. She is a Fellow in American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and the National Academy of Education.
She has conducted research on topics ranging from gender-role socialization, classroom influences on motivation to social development in the family, school, peer and wider cultural contexts. Much of this work focuses on the socialization of self-beliefs and the impact of self-beliefs on many other aspects of social development. Her most recent work focuses on: (1) ethnicity as a part of the self and as a social category influencing experiences and (2) the relation of self beliefs and identity to the transition from mid to late adolescence and then into adulthood.
