Women's occupational motivation: The impact of being a woman in a man's world

Despite substantial improvement in women’s representation in the workplace in many Western countries (Soares et al., 2009), there are still marked differences in the types of roles and sectors in which women and men work. In particular, women remain stubbornly underrepresented in many stereotypically masculine industries, such as construction (9 per cent employees; Office for National Statistics, 2008), science and technology (33 per cent lecturers; HESA, 2009), the armed forces and police service (23 per cent of officers; Home Office, 2007), surgery (16 per cent trainees; RCS, 2011), and financial services (25 per cent senior officers; Catalyst, 2011). Moreover, the fact that women tend to leave these industries at higher rates than men do means that the further you move up the hierarchy, the more men come to dominate.