Parent–child career construction: A narrative study from a gender perspective

• We confirmed the importance of same-sex dyads on children's career development.
• Father–son stories were plotted around occupational and educational transmission.
• Mother–daughter stories were focused on girl's self-making in a maternal alliance.
• Father–daughter dyads emerged as the least important in career stories.
• Career stories help children to anchor choices and assimilate transitions.

Nine families composed of mother and father, one son and one daughter were involved in this study to examine the role played by parents on children's career development from a gender perspective. In particular, this paper addresses the questions of how the parent–child dyad constructs stories about the child's career and the role played in it by the parent, and how same-sex dyads versus opposite-sex shape these stories. The narrative method was used as it lends itself to capturing family members storytelling about children's career. A narrative interview was administered to thirty-six participants with the data being analyzed using the adaptation of a tried-and-tested narrative analysis procedure. The findings show the importance of same-sex dyads in constructing career stories, plotted around themes of father–son educational and occupational transmission and mother–daughter alliance in facilitating girls' self-making. The study shows how storytelling helps family members to accommodate disruptions experienced during career transitions and to motivate choices that make vocational identity more stable. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.