Diversity
In the earliest effort to extend social cognitive theory to career be-
havior, Hackett and Betz (1981) demonstrated how the construct of
self-efficacy might be applied to women’s career development. They
noted, for example, how gender-role socialization processes tend to
provide girls and young women with biased access to the four sources
of efficacy information (for example, gender-traditional role models,
differential encouragement to pursue culturally prescribed activities),
which, in turn, promotes self-efficacy for traditionally female activ-
ities but limits self-efficacy in nontraditional domains. Subsequent
research has tended to support Hackett and Betz’s theoretical analy-
sis. For instance, women tend to report more self-efficacy for per-
forming occupations that are traditionally held by women than for
those that are male-dominated (Betz & Hackett, 1981). Such find-
ings suggest that women’s career pursuits can be constricted by the
self-limiting effects of low self-efficacy. In other words, environment-
imposed barriers may become internalized in the form of biased self-
efficacy beliefs.
Related research has shown that self-efficacy beliefs mediate
gender differences in scientific-technical field interests (for exam-
ple, Lapan, Boggs, & Morrill, 1989). Studies using general samples
of students typically find male-female differences in self-efficacy
regarding gender-typed tasks and fields (for example, mathematics),
though such differences are less likely to be found in samples of
women and men who have had comparable efficacy-building expe-
riences. Occupational sex stereotyping with respect to self-efficacy
has also been found to be less pronounced in younger cohorts (see
Bandura, 1997; Hackett & Lent, 1992).
The work discussed here highlights several social cognitive
mechanisms through which potential career paths can be stymied
in women. Apart from the role of self-efficacy beliefs in promoting
gender differences in occupational pursuits, “cultural constraints,
inequitable incentive systems, and truncated opportunity struc-
tures are also influential in shaping women’s career development”
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