In recent surveys, over 80% of workers said they planned to look for a new job in the New Year, and 60% said they wanted to choose a different career path entirely. Women seem to be at the forefront of the charge. For the last few years, more women than men have pursued MBAs in order to make a mid-career switch.
But which jobs offer the most security, satisfaction and financial gain? Cue jobs expert Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D., the author of Best Jobs for the 21st Century. He uncovered the best jobs for women in 2013 by analyzing the occupations with the highest percentage of women reporting “very high” satisfaction levels, based on the National Survey of College Graduates, the highest median annual earnings as of 2011, strong projected growth through 2020 and the largest number of total annual openings, as tracked by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The result? Shatkin found that a woman’s best shot at career success in the New Year is as a diagnosing medical doctor, including physicians, dentists and optometrists. The majority of women in this role (60%) report very high satisfaction levels, and the job pays a median salary of $121,000 and features high job security. There are nearly 80,000 openings a year, and the field is expected to grow 27% by 2020.
In fact, several roles in health care, one of the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy and dominated by women, appear on this list. Female health professionals (including registered nurses, pharmacists and dieticians), non-practicing medical scientists, and psychologists all report high satisfaction and feature good pay and strong future growth.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual employee satisfaction survey, women rank the top contributors to their job satisfaction as: opportunities to use their skills and abilities (65%), job security (64%), communication between employees and senior management (61%) and compensation. As a comparison, men place slightly more importance on pay and also list the work itself as a leading contributor.
Interestingly, most of these jobs are high-level professional jobs requiring a major education and time commitment. For example, lawyers and judges and top-level managers and executives—jobs known for long hours and a lot of stress—have some of the highest satisfaction levels among women.
Shatkin says these types of jobs offer a high level of intellectual satisfaction, and, because more education typically results in higher pay, the women are able to feel more secure and fairly compensated. Furthermore, he says the trend of hiring more professional support staff unburdens them from much of the grunt work. For example, physician assistants, nurse aides and paralegals often manage the administrative and routine work, allowing the professional to focus on the work they were trained for.
Professional jobs also feature high levels of autonomy, which research shows boosts employee satisfaction. Defined as freedom to make choices in the workplace and be accountable for them, autonomy may include on-the-job decision-making latitude, control over your work schedule or the freedom to elect how and where to work. In a study last year, researchers at Concordia University found the potential benefits of workplace autonomy to include greater employee commitment, better performance, improved productivity and lower turnover.
In some of the best jobs, women are in the minority of workers. Although they are only 29% of actuaries and only 5% of petroleum engineers, both landed on the top-10 list. Shatkin believes the women who pursue typically masculine jobs, bravely bucking employment gender norms, likely have a strong personality fit and talent for the work, which would contribute to higher satisfaction levels. For example, 56% of female actuaries report being “very satisfied,” compared to only 47% of male actuaries.
The numbers of women pursuing professional jobs has exploded in the last 50 years. They now earn the majority of professional and doctoral degrees, up from just 10% in 1961. The number of women in law school has gone from 4% in 1963 to 44% today, and the number in medical school increased from 6% to 49%. Despite these gains, women continue to face significant leadership and wage gaps, earning just 82% as much as their male peers earn just one year out of college.
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