Voci di donna: le traiettorie femminili tra progetti e stereotipi in un’iniziativa di orientamento universitario

Abstract

Gender influences the youth’s choices, leading them to educational and professional paths oriented by the role expectations that have been interiorized in childhood. Therefore, it becomes essential to analyse the interactions of gender and other cultural, socio-economical and subjective elements which characterize the teenagers’ identities and their transitions from school to work. The project “The Youths and work” has been conceived as part of the guidance activities of the Department of education, humans sciences and intercultural communication of Arezzo with the aim of enabling female students attending first year of university and secondary schools to choose their paths more knowingly. Starting from the assumption that the majority of students attending the university courses are women, the meetings held as part of the project aimed to examine female scholars’ representations of work. Furthermore, some privileged witnesses, during a specific meeting, described their educational and professional paths highlighting their positive and negative experiences. In this essay I will analyse  the conversations with students, in which we have tried to expose the distorted views and prejudices that may affect the life plans of the female students.

Keywords: university guidance, gender stereotypes, female motivations, life plans.