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Introduction
The concept of “calling” has previously been identified as significant in the careers of both women and men (Bunderson and Thompson, 2009; Dobrow and Tosti-Kharas, 2012). As well, calling has been studied to understand its influence on women’s careers in particular (Duffy et al., 2011; Duffy et al., 2014). Although relevant for career decisions and career behavior, there is no single definition of calling in appreciation of varying understandings to this concept. Therefore, expressions of calling and calling behavior manifest within the culture in which they occur (Rosso et al., 2010), will differ between countries because of inherent cultural beliefs, norms and values (Nath, 2017) and vary across industrial contexts (Afiouni, and Karam, 2019).
Thus, it is justifiable to study calling in a particular industry; as to date, no studies exist in relation to calling and women’s careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), despite gender inequality in those professions internationally (Wang et al., 2015). Furthermore, there has been an increase in the number of female STEM graduates globally (Al Gazali et al., 2013; Sellers et al., 2005), although the numbers of women in the STEM labor market remain low (World Economic Forum (WEF), 2016). A particular international context to study calling is that of the Arab region, where 62% of the graduates from STEM disciplines in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were women (WEF, 2016), and in Saudi Arabia, two-thirds of science degrees were awarded to women (Al Gazali et al., 2013).
This study, therefore, addresses the need to know more about the influence from calling on the careers of women (citizens and expatriates) in the Arab region. The research question that guided this study was, what makes STEM women graduates persist or abandon a STEM career? To address that question, a qualitative study was conducted of a sample group of 12 international (citizen and expatriate) STEM women graduates working in the UAE. Data were collected in life history narratives from recorded interviews with these women (Madsen, 2010). Content of those transcripts were analyzed to identify themes of influence on careers of these participants. Findings revealed that calling accounted for a minority of STEM women persisting in those industries. The contribution of this study arose...