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The Effect of Gender-Stereotypes on Explicit and Implicit Career Preferences. Reuma Gadassi and Itamar Gati Hebrew University of Jerusalem Presented at the International Counseling Psychology Conference Chicago, March 2008. THE GOAL studying.
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The Effect of Gender-Stereotypes on Explicit and Implicit Career Preferences Reuma Gadassi and Itamar Gati Hebrew University of Jerusalem Presented at the International Counseling Psychology Conference Chicago, March 2008
THE GOALstudying • the possible effects of gender-stereotypes on the process of choosing occupations • the effects of approaching career choices in terms of: • Preferred occupations versus • Preferences in important career-related aspects The question: does the method of eliciting occupational aspiration moderates the effect of gender-stereotypes on occupational choices?
METHOD • Participants226 females (74.1%) and 79 males (25.9%) who entered the Future DirectionsInternet site, and chose to fill out the research questionnaire in return for feedback. • Age: 17-30, mean=23 (median = 22) • Years of education: mean=12. 7 (median 12)
Future Directionshttp://www.kivunim.com An Israeli website in Hebrew, designed for assisting deliberating individuals in making their career decisions. It is a public service and is offered free of charge.
Making Better Career Decisions -an Internet-based career guidance system (http://mbcd.intocareers.org) The Rationale the dialogue is divided into distinct stages, corresponding to thePICModel’s stages(Gati & Asher, 2001): - Prescreening (based on sequential elimination) - In-depth exploration - Choice
On-line Questionnaire • Background information (age, gender, years of education) • Participants were asked to "specify 5 to 10 (or more) occupations that you think are suitable for you" (the directly elicited list) • The Career Preference Questionnaire used to elicit the participants’ career preferences in terms of career related-aspects (relative importance & preferred levels) • Personal information: participants were asked to report a mailing address for receiving feedback
Procedure • The data consisted of two lists of occupations for each participant: • the directly elicited list – the preferred occupations as reported by the individual • the indirectly derived list – occupations that were found compatible with the user’s aspect-based preferences by MBCD based onthe sequential-elimination-search • Gender Dominance Ratings of occupations (1-feminine – 5-masculine) • Each participant received (by mail or e-mail): • a list of promising alternatives that was produced by MBCD • a user code for MBCD (= 16 US$)
Design Preferences in career-related aspects Data from participant: Directly Elicited list of preferred occupations comparison Occupational information database Indirectly Derived listof recommendedoccupations Matching preferences & database MBCD
Conclusion The comparison of the directly elicited and the indirectly derived lists of occupations supported the hypothesis: using preferences in terms of aspects may lead to a less gender-stereotypical choice for both men and women
Implications • When discussing clients’ future options, it is important to elicit the individual’s preferences in terms of aspects rather than in terms of occupational titles • In this manner, individuals’ career decisions are less likely to be influenced by stereotypes, and would perhaps consider a wider range of occupations
For further information, write to: Itamar.gati@huji.ac.il WWW.CDDQ.ORG