A study was conducted to examine the effects of neutral and sex-specific terminology on sex stereotyping in regard to two primary questions: 1) whether or not the use of sex-neutral terminology alters subjects ' associations to particular words, and 2) whether, in the absence of gender identification, subjects make traditional sex-role assumptions about neutral terms. A third questions examined potential differences in male and female subjects' responses to neutral and sex-specific terminology.
Using a semantic differential technique, 40 male and 40 female volunteer subjects described a number of occupations and roles identified by sex-specific or sex-unspecified labels. Descriptions of those identified by sex-specific labels were compared with descriptions of equivalent occupations or roles labelled in a sex-neutral way. Selected descriptions of equivalent occupations not identified by sex were compared to descriptions of equivalent occupations labelled with the sex-specific terms traditionally associated with them.
In analyzing the data obtained, analyses of variance, along with one and two-tailed t-tests were used. Results indicated that subjects did respond differentially to sex-specific and sex-unspecified or neutral terminology. However, no significant differences were found in the responses of male and female subjects, indicating that sex is not a factor in reaction to sex-neutral language of this type. When scores on neutral terms were compared with scores on traditionally sex-specific terms, no significant differences were found. Thus, for roles traditionally associated more with one sex than the other, the use of so-called neutral terms did not appear to decrease sex stereotyping.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-7023 |
| Date | 01 May 1983 |
| Creators | Malovich, Natalie J. |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@USU |
| Source Sets | Utah State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | All Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact digitalcommons@usu.edu. |
Page generated in 0.0025 seconds