Scholarship on occupational gender segregation has almost exclusively focused on women’s experiences (e.g., as targets of discrimination in masculine domains), yet understanding factors that perpetuate men’s underrepresentation in traditionally feminine occupations is equally important. In my dissertation, I examine a consequential dynamic early in the job search process in which individuals come to learn that an occupation that fits them is perceived as stereotypically feminine versus masculine. Specifically, I develop and test the prediction that the perceived femininity or masculinity of occupations will exert a stronger impact on men’s (versus women’s) interest in them, such that men will be less interested in gender-atypical occupations than women. Across six studies (N = 4,914), I consistently observed robust evidence for this prediction among diverse samples, including high school students, unemployed job seekers, US adults, and undergraduates, and using experimental and archival methods. I observed this asymmetry after controlling for alternative accounts related to economic factors (e.g., expected salary), suggesting that they alone cannot fully explain men’s lack of interest in feminine occupations, as previously discussed in the literature. Further, I consistently observed that men, compared to women, show heightened sensitivity to gender-based occupational status, and men’s greater sensitivity to gender-based occupational segregation explains men’s (versus women’s) reduced interest in gender-atypical occupations. Notably, an intervention aimed at addressing men’s sensitivity to gender-based occupational status effectively increased their interest in a traditionally feminine occupation. Though past scholarship suggests that increasing pay is key to stoking men’s interest in feminine occupations, this research suggests that targeting men’s sensitivity to gender-based occupational status may be an underappreciated pathway to reducing gender segregation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/49015 |
| Date | 07 June 2024 |
| Creators | Suh, Eileen YeiRim |
| Contributors | Apfelbaum, Evan P. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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