Sex hormones are very important in the life of a person. Even before birth, sex hormones are responsible for the gender of a certain individual. It is also responsible for the secondary male or female characteristics which may show during pre-adolescent or puberty stages. However, according to psychologists, sex hormones strongly influence one’s interests, including the occupations or careers they tend to choose.
Dr. Sheri Berenbaum, a professor of Psychology and Pediatrics in Pennsylvania State University, and her team of researchers looked at the people’s interest in occupations which exhibit sex differences. These careers are relevant to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This research studied teenagers and adults with CAH (Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia), and their siblings who do not have such condition.
People with CAH have more androgen in their blood stream because of the increased function of their adrenal glands. These adrenal glands are responsible for the release of sex hormones. Androgen is a male sex hormone and its hypersecretion gives rise to more manly characteristics. Females with CAH are genetically females, but they tend to show interest to stereotypical male careers.
In their report, it showed that females with CAH are more significantly interested in taking on a career related to THINGS compared to careers which are related to PEOPLE. Furthermore, those people exposed to too much androgen while in the uterus showed most interest in working on things, versus working with people. Oppositely, females without CAH were found to be less interested in careers that are usually stereotyped for men like engineer, surgeon, etc. These females tend to be more inclined with PEOPLE related jobs like being a teacher, social worker, etc. No difference was found among males with and without CAH.
“We found there is a biological influence on that interest toward things, so maybe women aren’t going into STEM careers because what they’re interested in — people — isn’t consistent with an interest in STEM careers,” said Beltz. “Maybe we could show females ways in which an interest in people is compatible with STEM careers.”
According to Beltz, they took advantage of a natural experiment and it yielded that the interests of people with regard to their work develop early in life.
This research was carried out by asking the participants to rate a list of 64 occupations as to whether they like, dislike or are indifferent to those jobs. The occupations were grouped into six categories specifically, realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional. Realistic and investigative careers include thing-oriented careers like scientists, farmers, engineers; social and artistic careers represent people-oriented vocations like teaching, artistry, and the like. All careers somewhere in between handling things and handling people are assigned in the enterprising category. These jobs include hotel managers, realtors, etc.
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