Abstract
We investigate whether sex differences in academic strengths have an impact on society by affecting the career choices made by women and men. By longitudinally following 167,776 individuals from Sweden, we found that (1) more 16-year old girls than boys had a relative strength in verbal/language school subjects than in technical/numerical ones, whereas more boys than girls had a relative strength in technical/numerical school subjects than in verbal/language ones; (2) when these girls and boys attained higher education and entered employment, they largely pursued careers cognitively matching their initial academic strengths; (3) while individuals generally made career choices in line with their academic strengths, men and women matched on these strengths nevertheless made rather distinct career choices, in particular women with technical/numerical strengths who largely avoided careers demanding these skills; (4) sex distribution in education and occupation was related to the extent these career paths were perceived as either numerically or verbally demanding. Taken together, although gender segregation is to some extent associated with individuals making choices matching their academic strengths, the vast discrepancies in career outcomes between men and women can be only in part attributed to sex differences in academic performance.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 84-92 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Intelligence |
| Volume | 67 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 1 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by grants awarded to AH by the Swedish Research Council ( E0224101 ) and the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research ( 2010-0705 ) (FORTE). DW was supported by the European Research Council ( ERC2012-AdG 323947-Re-Ageing ). The funders had no involvement in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Inc.
