Sex-Role Characteristics and Choice of Traditional and Non-Traditional Careers.

This study investigated whether the self perceptions and beliefs about sex roles among men and women who choose non-traditional careers differ from those typically associated with their sex. Personality traits, values, self concepts, and the importance of culturally defined st and ards of masculinity and femininity were assessed in undergraduates in traditionally feminine (elementary education) and masculine (business management) majors. Three measures of sex roles were administered to 86 males (46 in education; 40 in business) and 61 females (30 in education; 31 in business): The Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), Revised Form of the Agency-Communion Value Scale (ACVS), and the Masculinity-Femininity Identity Scale (MFIS). It was expected that males in education and females in business would differ from same sex peers in traditional majors. Results from the PAQ and the ACVS indicated that men in education did not view themselves as less masculine or more feminine, but did report that masculinity was less salient to their self view than men in business, p < .05. On the PAQ women in business did not report themselves to be more masculine than women in education. Feminine attributes, p < .01, and feminine sex-typing, p < .01, were significantly related to choice of an elementary education major for women. There were no differences in values on the ACVS. There was a trend for women in business to report that femininity was less important to their self view, p < .06. Multivariate analyses resulted in significant differences in patterns of scores on the sex role measures for men, p < .01, and women, p < .01, and two canonical discriminant functions which differentiated between same sex peers in the two majors. The findings indicated that differences between individuals who make non-traditional and traditional career choices are not as great as stereotyped notions suggest. The results were consistent with and rogyny and transcendence models of sex roles in that "personalized beliefs" about sex roles were related to career choices. Individuals who believed cultural st and ards of sex roles were not important to their self views were more likely to choose sex-atypical careers. Results supported a multidimensional formulation of sex roles as more predictive of sex-typed career choices than individual sex-role factors.Ph.D.PsychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158742/1/8204767.pd