Constructing a professional identity: how young female managers use role models

Role models are often identified as important for aspiring managers as they seek into how to develop themselves in their careers. There are, however, few female role models at the top of companies. This project explores how careerminded women use role models. It draws on previous research into how experimented with their identity projections to become partners in professional service firms. In-depth interviews with ten young professional revealed that they actively draw on role models from different domains. In cases, the role models were personally known to the individual women, in other cases, they were personally unknown to them. The women revealed they preferred to use the learning from external role models rather than on individual women from the top of their own professions. This research richness to our understanding of young female managers’ use of role models, contributes up-todate empirical evidence in a field which has been somewhat in recent year