Gender Differences in Aspirations and Attainment

Ingrid Schoon is Professor of Human Development and Social Policy in the Institute of Education, University of London. Jacquelynne S. Eccles is McKeachie/Pintrich Distinguished University Professor in the School of Education, University of Michigan.

• Part I. Introduction: Conceptualising gender differences in aspirations and attainment: a life course perspective Ingrid Schoon and Jacquelynne S. Eccles; Part II. The Early School Years: 1. Peer influences on gender differences in educational aspiration and attainment Richard A. Fabes, Sarah Hayford, Erin Pahlke, Carlos Santos, Kristina Zosuls, Carol Lynn Martin and Laura D. Hanish; 2. Beginning school transition and academic achievement in mid-elementary school: does gender matter? Marlis Buchmann and Irene Kriesi; 3. Gender differences in teachers' perceptions and children's ability self-concepts Katja Upadyaya and Jacquelynne Eccles; 4. Emerging gender differences in times of multiple transitions Jennifer Symonds, Maurice Galton and Linda Hargreaves; Part III. Career Planning during Adolescence: 5. What shall I do with my life? Motivational, personal, and contextual factors in mastering the transition to high school David Weiss, Bettina Wiese and Alexandra Freund; 6. Gendered happiness gap? Adolescents' academic wellbeing pathways Katariina Salmela-Aro; 7. Uncertainty in educational and career aspirations: gender differences in young people Leslie Morrison Gutman, Ricardo Sabates and Ingrid Schoon; 8. The challenges facing young people in apprenticeships Allison Fuller and Lorna Unwin; Part IV. Choosing a Science Career; 9. Do teenagers want to become scientists? A comparison of gender differences in attitudes, expectations and academic skill across twenty-nine countries John Jerrim and Ingrid Schoon; 10. Predicting career aspirations and university majors from academic ability and self-concept: a longitudinal application of the Internal-External frame of reference model Philip Parker, Gabriel Nagy, Ulrich Trautwein and Oliver Lüdtke; 11. Does priority matter? Gendered patterns of task-values across subject domains Angela Chow and Katariina Salmela-Aro; 12. Gender differences in personal aptitudes and motivational beliefs for achievement in and commitment to math and science fields Ming-Te Wang and Sarah Kenny; 13. What happens to high-achieving females after high school? Gender and persistence on the postsecondary STEM pipeline Lara Perez-Felkner, Sarah-Kathryn McDonald and Barbara Schneider; 14. Young people, gender, and science: does an early interest lead to a job in SET? A longitudinal view from the BHPS youth data Anna Bagnoli, Dieter Demey and Jackie Scott; 15. Motivational affordances in school versus work contexts advantage different individuals: a possible explanation for domain-differential gender gaps Jutta Heckhausen; Part V. Longer Term Consequences of Early Experiences: 16. The life course consequences of single-sex and co-educational schooling Alice Sullivan and Heather Joshi; 17. Pathways to educational attainment in middle adulthood: the role of gender and parental educational expectations Miia Bask, Laura Ferrer-Wreder, Katariina Salmela-Aro and Lars Bergman; 18. How gender influences objective career success and subjective career satisfaction: the impact of self concept and of parenthood Andrea Abele; Part VI. The Role of Context: 19. Gender differences in attainment across generations from a historical perspective Anne McMunn, Elizabeth Webb, Mel Bartley, David Blane and Gopal Netuveli; 20. Gender inequality by choice? The effects of aspirations on gender inequality in wages Silke Aisenbrey and Hannah Brückner; 21. Comparing young peoples' beliefs and perception of gender equality across twenty-eight different countries Bryony Hoskins and Jan Germen Janmaat.

'The value here is the diversity of perspectives - in terms of discipline, national context, life stage - that Schoon, Eccles and their first-class team bring to the discussion of gender, school and work. By delving into this diversity, readers will come to understand how a young woman or man makes life decisions.' Robert Crosnoe, University of Texas, Austin