Women's lower career advancement relative to men is sometimes explained by internal factors such as women's lower willingness to make sacrifices for their career, and sometimes by external barriers such as discrimination. In the current research, positing a dynamic interplay between internal and external factors, we empirically test how external workplace barriers guide individuals' internal decisions to make sacrifices for the advancement of their careers. In two high-powered studies in traditionally male-dominated fields (surgery, N = 1,080; veterinary medicine, N = 1,385), women indicated less willingness than men to make sacrifices for their career. Results of structural equation modeling demonstrated that this difference was explained by women's more frequent experience of gender discrimination and lower perceptible fit with people higher up the professional ladder. These barriers predicted reduced expectations of success in their field (Study 1) and expected success of their sacrifices (Study 2), which in turn predicted lower willingness to make sacrifices. The results explain how external barriers play a role in internal career decision making. Importantly, our findings show that these decision-making processes are similar for men and women, yet, the circumstances under which these decisions are made are gendered. That is, both men and women weigh the odds in deciding whether to sacrifice for their career, but structural conditions may influence these perceived odds in a way that favors men. Overall, this advances our understanding of gender differences, workplace inequalities, and research on the role of “choice” and/or structural discrimination behind such inequalities.

中文翻译：

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在传统上由男性主导的领域中，女性不太愿意为自己的职业做出牺牲，因为歧视和与上层人士的不适应使得牺牲不值得

与男性相比，女性的职业发展水平较低有时可以解释为内部因素，例如女性为职业做出牺牲的意愿较低，有时也可以解释为外部障碍，例如歧视。在当前的研究中，假设内部和外部因素之间存在动态相互作用，我们实证检验了外部工作场所障碍如何引导个人的内部决策，为他们的职业发展做出牺牲。在传统男性主导领域的两项高水平研究中（外科，N  = 1,080；兽医学，N = 1,385），女性比男性更不愿意为自己的事业做出牺牲。结构方程模型的结果表明，这种差异可以通过女性更频繁的性别歧视经历和与职业阶梯更高的人的较低感知契合度来解释。这些障碍预示着他们对自己领域成功的期望降低（研究 1）和他们的牺牲成功的预期（研究 2），这反过来又预示着牺牲的意愿降低。结果解释了外部障碍如何在内部职业决策中发挥作用。重要的是，我们的研究结果表明，男性和女性的这些决策过程是相似的，但是，做出这些决定的环境是有性别的。那是，在决定是否为自己的事业做出牺牲时，男性和女性都会权衡赔率，但结构条件可能会以有利于男性的方式影响这些感知赔率。总体而言，这促进了我们对性别差异、工作场所不平等的理解，以及对“选择”和/或这种不平等背后结构性歧视的作用的研究。