The third theme of Occupational Effects that I found when reading literature in relation to my topic focused on how family life, institutions, and media affect how girls see women and eventually themselves as they grow older. All these influential factors of how they see women characterized in different aspects of society have effects on what fields they go into as they get older. For example, Powell (2011) discusses many different aspects of gender expectations and norms in the workplace in his book Women & Men in Management. Similarly, Hayes, Bigler, and Weisgram (2017) specifically look at the relationship between occupational interests and gender at a young age. “Children were more interested in jobs depicted with same- than other-gender workers in both studies. Boys showed greater interest than did girls in novel jobs depicted as affording money in Study 1, but not Study 2,” (Hayes et al. 2017: 775). These two studies are relevant to my research topic because one of the aspects I analyzed in the episodes is the female lead’s interests. Many of the shows take place in educational settings where the girls go to school and take classes, so something I looked for in my content analysis was a presence or note of occupation and goals in life. Another important theme that I found in my review of the literature was the representation of genders in television and movies. This theme relates closest to my topic and provided insight into what research has been done and how different studies have measured and collected data.
Explore Themes:
The Perpetuation of a Heteronormative, Male-Dominated Society
Influential Factors on Children and Pre-teens
