TY - JOUR
T1 - Gendered occupational interests
T2 - Prenatal androgen effects on psychological orientation to Things versus People
AU - Beltz, Adriene M.
AU - Swanson, Jane L.
AU - Berenbaum, Sheri A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health Grant HD19644. We thank the following people who contributed to this work: Kristina Bryk coordinated the project that produced these data and assisted with manuscript preparation; Stephen Duck coded medical records; he and Deborah Edidin, Erica Eugster, Reema Habiby, David Klein, Bernard Silverman, Kumud Sane, Neil White, and David Wyatt generously provided access to their patients; Lori Alegnani collected and processed data; graduate and undergraduate research assistants processed data; Judith Elaine Owen Blakemore, Theresa Vescio, Norman Henderson, and two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on the manuscript. We are particularly grateful to the patients and their families for their participation in the study.
PY - 2011/9
Y1 - 2011/9
N2 - There is considerable interest in understanding women's underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. Career choices have been shown to be driven in part by interests, and gender differences in those interests have generally been considered to result from socialization. We explored the contribution of sex hormones to career-related interests, in particular studying whether prenatal androgens affect interests through psychological orientation to Things versus People. We examined this question in individuals with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), who have atypical exposure to androgens early in development, and their unaffected siblings (total N= 125 aged 9 to 26. years). Females with CAH had more interest in Things versus People than did unaffected females, and variations among females with CAH reflected variations in their degree of androgen exposure. Results provide strong support for hormonal influences on interest in occupations characterized by working with Things versus People.
AB - There is considerable interest in understanding women's underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. Career choices have been shown to be driven in part by interests, and gender differences in those interests have generally been considered to result from socialization. We explored the contribution of sex hormones to career-related interests, in particular studying whether prenatal androgens affect interests through psychological orientation to Things versus People. We examined this question in individuals with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), who have atypical exposure to androgens early in development, and their unaffected siblings (total N= 125 aged 9 to 26. years). Females with CAH had more interest in Things versus People than did unaffected females, and variations among females with CAH reflected variations in their degree of androgen exposure. Results provide strong support for hormonal influences on interest in occupations characterized by working with Things versus People.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.06.002
DO - 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.06.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 21689657
AN - SCOPUS:80052172004
SN - 0018-506X
VL - 60
SP - 313
EP - 317
JO - Hormones and Behavior
JF - Hormones and Behavior
IS - 4
ER -
