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Academic career intention beyond the PhD : can the theory of planned behavior explain gender differences?
Author(s) -
Evers Andrea,
Sieverding Monika
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12285
Subject(s) - theory of planned behavior , psychology , norm (philosophy) , social psychology , control (management) , management , political science , law , economics
Are women less interested in becoming professors than men? We applied the theory of planned behavior ( TPB ) to investigate the intention to pursue an academic career. Postdocs who recently finished their PhD at a G erman university participated in an online survey ( N = 380, mean age: 33; 45% women). Women reported lower academic career intentions ( d = 0.40); TPB variables (attitude, subjective norm, self‐efficacy) explained 87% of this gender difference. At an 8 month follow‐up, we found no gender difference in the intention to continue in an academic career among the postdocs who were still working in academia ( n = 129). Addressing TPB constructs early in women's academic careers could encourage them to remain in academia and strive for a professorship.