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The role of appearance in selection for sex-typed jobs

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Madeline Heilman’s (1983) Lack of Fit Model, which postulates why discrimination occurs in the selection of sex-typed jobs, has been applied to the interaction of applicant attractiveness. Yet recent research suggests that other appearance variables, namely sex-typed facial features, may be associated with perceptions of fit. Building upon Heilman’s 1983 model, the current study evaluated how sex-typed facial features relate to applicant selection for sex-typed fields. Undergraduate students were recruited for participation during the spring academic semester (n = 413) and data were analyzed using a 2x2x2 ANOVA. Results indicated that selection is significantly impacted by the three-way interaction of applicant sex, facial feature-type, and sex type of the applying field. Further, masculine-featured females and feminine-featured males were significantly less favored for selection within the feminine sex-typed field. Implications of these findings and the differential evaluation of male and female applicants in a feminine field are discussed.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:IUPUI/oai:scholarworks.iupui.edu:1805/6052
Date January 2014
CreatorsRedhead, Megan E.
ContributorsStockdale, Margaret S., Williams, Jane R., Boyd, Elizabeth, Grahame, Nicholas J.
Source SetsIndiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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