Using Metaphors to Explore the Influence of Career Perceptions on Gender Diversity in the Australian Geosciences

Career perceptions factor into career-related decision-making. How women and men geoscientists perceive their careers can impact their career choices and therefore workforce gender composition. Analysis of visual metaphors provided during individual interviews and questionnaires of Australian women and men geoscientists show the following: Both genders find their careers challenging. Men acknowledged greater challenges in a woman's career, although women did not reciprocate this acknowledgment. Sense of achievement in geoscientists is low, especially among women. Women often do not feel included and gave metaphors of men with powerful, dominating, competitive narratives that do not match self-reflections from men. Within the context of social cognitive career theory, these career perceptions potentially highlight low career self-efficacy and outcome expectations within women geoscientists, which along with external factors can negatively impact retention. We propose strategies to cultivate supportive and inclusive communities to promote higher career self-efficacy and outcome expectations and therefore retain women geoscientists and achieve gender balance.