Do College Students’ Gender-typed Attitudes About Occupations Predict Their Real-World Decisions?

We investigated US college students’ gender-typed attitudes about occupations for themselves as a predictor of their real-world decisions regarding an academic major and intended future career. We also investigated US college students’ attitudes about the appropriateness of gender-typed occupations...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sex roles 2013-05, Vol.68 (9-10), p.536-549
Main Authors: DiDonato, Lisa, Strough, JoNell
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Career Development
Careers
College Students
Decisions
Females
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender differences
Gender Studies
High School Graduates
Males
Medicine/Public Health
Occupational choice
Original Article
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Sex roles
Social psychology
Social role. Sex role
Sociology
Stereotypes
United States of America
Working Women
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Summary:We investigated US college students’ gender-typed attitudes about occupations for themselves as a predictor of their real-world decisions regarding an academic major and intended future career. We also investigated US college students’ attitudes about the appropriateness of gender-typed occupations for other men and women. The sample ( N = 264) was mostly Caucasian and was drawn from a large state university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US. An established self-report measure (see Liben and Bigler 2002 ) was used to assess attitudes about occupations for the self and other people. Gender-typed majors and intended careers were categorized using a coding scheme that was developed for the study. College students preferred gender-stereotypical occupations for themselves. Women’s, but not men’s, preferences for gender-typed occupations predicted their decisions about their academic major and the career they intended to pursue. Both men and women reported that men should only hold masculine occupations, but that women should hold both masculine and feminine occupations. We discuss the implications of our results for understanding the gender gap in occupations in the US, such as the underrepresentation of women in STEM careers and barriers for men in stereotypically female occupations.
ISSN:0360-0025
1573-2762
DOI:10.1007/s11199-013-0275-2