The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Horm Behav. 2011 Sep;60(4):313-7. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.06.002. Epub 2011 Jun 12.
There is considerable interest in understanding women's underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. Career choices have been shown to be driven in part by interests, and gender differences in those interests have generally been considered to result from socialization. We explored the contribution of sex hormones to career-related interests, in particular studying whether prenatal androgens affect interests through psychological orientation to Things versus People. We examined this question in individuals with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), who have atypical exposure to androgens early in development, and their unaffected siblings (total N=125 aged 9 to 26 years). Females with CAH had more interest in Things versus People than did unaffected females, and variations among females with CAH reflected variations in their degree of androgen exposure. Results provide strong support for hormonal influences on interest in occupations characterized by working with Things versus People.
人们对于理解女性在科学、技术、工程和数学领域职业中代表性不足的现象非常感兴趣。职业选择部分是由兴趣驱动的，而这些兴趣方面的性别差异通常被认为是社会化的结果。我们探讨了性激素对与职业相关的兴趣的贡献，特别是研究产前雄激素是否通过对事物与对人的心理倾向来影响兴趣。我们在患有先天性肾上腺增生症（CAH）的个体及其未受影响的兄弟姐妹（共 125 名年龄在 9 至 26 岁之间）中研究了这个问题。患有 CAH 的女性对事物的兴趣比对人的兴趣更大，而 CAH 女性之间的差异反映了她们雄激素暴露程度的差异。研究结果为激素对以处理事物与处理人物为特征的职业兴趣的影响提供了有力的支持。
