Young law and management students' perception of their future career

Abstract

In this paper, we examine young women law and management students' perceptions of their future career. Using focus groups, women participants stated that the main barriers to their future career progression would be conflict between motherhood and pressure to work long hours and pay disparities. The participants were unaware, however, of the many persistent barriers that restrict women's career advancement. Moreover, the law students had constituted themselves as future working mothers, while the management students constituted women as unreliable workers because of potential motherhood. These perceptions suggest that these young women are already conditioned to assimilate into current gendered employment structures evident in these two professions and are ill prepared to challenge gendered practices that restrict women's career advancement.