Last month the Government published new national standards for young people’s career advice. One aim of the new standards is to ensure that careers guidance is free from gender stereotyping. Recently Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, accused careers advisors of still assuming that girls would want to do “caring, teaching, nursing”. To what extent are girls continuing to be steered towards traditional ‘women’s jobs’? Are young women failing to get high-quality, up-to-date careers information? Or is it unfair to blame careers advisors for the continuing domination of men in occupations such as engineering, plumbing and construction? Jane Little discusses this with Margaret Prosser, chair of the Women and Work Commission, and Dr Rachel Mulvey, past-president of the Institute of Career Guidance which represents careers advisors.
