The survey of over 27,000 students at 126 UK universities found a number of key differences between male and female respondents that seem to suggest that graduates’ career expectations are still strongly shaped by gender.
For example, male graduates are prepared to spend around four more hours a week at work and expect to be paid 12pc more than female graduates, on average. The men surveyed also have a greater tendency to say they’d choose a bigger pay packet over job satisfaction, being two-and-a-half times more likely to disagree with the statement “it’s more important to feel fulfilled than to earn lots of money”.
The trendence Graduate Barometer 2014 also suggests that female graduates are more selective when seeking employment, being more likely to say ethical and moral issues play an important role in their choice of employer. Women also place greater priority on finding a job in an organisation that has a diverse workforce.
So does this mean that the next generation of graduates are destined to create a future where men continue to be the main breadwinners while women are left to decide how best to balance career and family?
It’s difficult to tell from a single survey. What’s interesting though, beneath the statistics that show a marked difference between the men and women that trendence surveyed, are the differences between students of the same sex.
So while around a half (53pc) of men and seven out of ten (68pc) women expect to work less than 45 hours a week; a sizeable minority of men (48pc) and women (32pc) are prepared to work more than 45 hours a week.
Similarly with pay, two thirds of male students (65pc) and eight out of ten female students predict that they’ll earn less than £25,000 per annum; while a third (34pc) of men and a fifth (20pc) of women have their sights set over the £25,000 mark.
And when it comes to job satisfaction, the majority of male students (57pc) and female students (71pc) surveyed say that having a fulfilling career is more important than earning lots of money.
So while there is a fairly even spread of higher fliers and lower fliers to be found amongst the male and female student populations, the majority of students leaving university are prepared to prioritise a job they enjoy over a highly-paid job.
Most students (65pc of men and 60pc of women) also say they’re prepared to make sacrifices in their personal lives in order to develop their career, though interestingly, few expect having a family to interfere with their progress at work. Only 29pc of men and 25pc of women surveyed think that taking time out for their family will have negative effect on their career.
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