Investigated the influence of sex role self concept on the choice of college major/career in 186 students. Results showed both sexes chose their major for traditional reasons (e.g., status, service) and placed little importance on considerations of sex appropriateness. Personal interests were more influential than future marriage plans. (JAC)

Male (N=120) and female (N=120) clients were counseled by male or female counselor classified as masculine, feminine, or androgynous in sex-role orientation. Clients' career choice traditionality was measured during counseling, following counseling, and with respect to clients' career six months later. Counselor gender and gender-role orientation…

The Attitudes toward Women Scale and the Occupational Check List were administered to 24 gifted eleventh and twelfth graders and 36 gifted ninth graders. Main effects were found for age and sex with older students and females having less traditional attitudes about careers and sex roles. (Author/DB)

Student attitudes toward men and women successful in occupations traditionally associated with the other gender were studied through ratings of a hypothetical stimulus person. Results with 230 undergraduates found that they expected deviation from occupational gender types to be personally costly for women but not for men. (SLD)

Examines the relationships between self esteem, career attitudes, and career choice among elementary school children (N=66). Results indicate that for girls the relationship between self-esteem and nontraditional attitudes is reliably established as early as the primary years in school. Conversely, boys with high self-esteem possessed more…

Results of this study provide evidence that college women perceive themselves as being less informed about nontraditional occupations. College men perceive themselves as equally knowledgeable about traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine occupations. (Author)

Examined reasons underlying the reported sex differences in structural features of vocational schemas. Controlled for type of rated occupation in determining structural features, and for individual career orientation. Found only gender had a significant impact on structural features. Women showed higher levels of vocational integration, and men…

Examined predicted sex differences in occupational achievement motivation. Significant sex by occupation stereotype interactions were found supporting the prediction of highest achievement motivation toward sex appropriate occupations. Females did not show significantly lower motivation toward high prestige masculine occupations--inconsistent with…

Women whose choices were in nontraditional career fields were significantly more likely to be making choices congruent with their personality type. While sex-role orientation was not significantly related to either congruence or traditionality, masculine-typed women were most likely to make nontraditional and congruent career choices. (Author)

Personnel managers examined vignettes in which an employee had made a serious mistake. Responses indicated that employees in traditionally male-identified positions were seen as more competent than those in female-identified jobs. Punishing personnel action was least likely to be recommended for men in traditionally male positions. (Author/SJL)

Examined utility of gender, traditionality of choice, and gender role identification as moderators of interest-field congruence and ability-level realism of academic major and occupational preferences in college students (N=592). Found traditionality of choice and gender role unrelated to interest-field congruence. (Author/NB)

A "release from proactive inhibition (PI) task" method examines the masculine-feminine connotation of a word as an attribute of encoding in memory. Male (N=45) and female (N=61) subjects were given four trials, each trial consisting of three occupations with all masculine or all feminine connotations, a subtraction task, and a recall…

Examined the shifts in occupational plans of adolescent women during the decade of the 1970s in contrast with those of men, studying general trends into higher status and out of lower status major occupational categories. Compared entry into male-dominant and exit from female-dominant occupations between students graduating in 1972 and 1980,…

Investigated the degree and congruence of students' (N=58) estimated and actual information about gender traditional occupations. Results showed subjects of each sex perceived themselves as less informed about nontraditional occupations. This result was more pronounced for women. Additionally, men and women did not differ in actual knowledge.…

Examined the relationship between sex-role self-concept and students' reported experiences and perceptions in majors traditionally dominated by the opposite sex. Results showed that the experience of sex role incongruence for students in cross-gender majors primarily affected females. Sex-role self-concept strongly affected students' feelings and…