Traditional Female Occupations Research Articles

The ideal partner: gender-occupation congruence and incongruence

ABSTRACT Chinese adults’ preference for long-term partners who had a gender-congruent or gender-incongruent occupation were examined. Participants were 442 university students who described themselves as heterosexual. They evaluated opposite-sex targets in traditional female or male occupations. It was found that the Chinese adults endorsed traditional occupational roles in the selection of ideal partners. Men viewed women in feminine occupations to be more family-oriented, more sexually loyal, and more likely to treat their male partners as the head of household, compared with women in masculine occupations. Women viewed men with traditional male occupations as more work-oriented and more likely to be the head of household, but less sexually loyal and less family-oriented. The results are relevant for interventions aimed at increasing people’s participation in counter-stereotypical careers.

Digital Segregation: Gender, Occupation, and Access to Politics

In the United States, women often show less interest in politics, and under some conditions, perform worse than men on political knowledge tests. In an age where education levels have reached parity, we suggest one of the explanations for gender differences in political engagement might be due to selection of occupation. Past research has shown women and men segregate into different occupations due to early gender socialization, differences in interest, and structural barriers. It is possible that due to these segregation effects, women in traditional female occupations (e.g., education, health care, service work) may have less access to personal Internet use and news sources during their work days. Using the 2014 General Social Survey, we create a new occupational typology based on access to the Internet to explore whether individuals in certain sectors differ in their political engagement and how these occupations are also divided by gender. Then, we apply the technology use measure to the 2016 American National Election Study and find that technology access on the job does not seem to be related to political knowledge, once we account for education, which offers some insight into the mechanisms by which individuals gain this knowledge. In addition, the interaction between total media consumption and tech use suggests that the gap in political knowledge between men and women is stubbornly persistent.

De normalistas a bancárias: Caminhos da profissionalização das mulheres no sul do Brasil (1960-1980)

O presente artigo, resultante de Mestrado em História, trata dos caminhos percorridos por cinco mulheres em duas profissões: a normalista e a bancária. Utilizando a metodologia da História Oral, a pesquisa teve como fonte entrevistas com mulheres que trocaram a profissão de professora pela carreira em bancos públicos entre as décadas de 1960 e 1980. Como se concluiu, a mudança de profissão fez parte de um processo histórico mais amplo que levou muitas mulheres das classes médias no Brasil ao mercado de trabalho, revelando permanências no tocante às tradicionais ocupações femininas.

Longitudinal Change and Maternal Influence on Occupational Aspirations of Gifted Female American and German Adolescents

This study assessed 43 gifted adolescent females in the United States and Germany over a 4-year period (in 7th or 8th grade and again during the 11th or 12th grade). Factors that were examined included the daughter's career selection, the prestige level and the education required to pursue that career, and the impact of the mother's gender role attitudes on these factors. Both American and German girls remained consistent in their career selections over time and selected moderately prestigious careers. German girls, as compared to American, selected less traditional female occupations and careers that require more educational training. Giftedness, cultural differences, and the implications for career counseling of gifted adolescent females are addressed.

The effectiveness of vocational education in promoting equity and occupational mobility amongst young people

This paper reviews current knowledge about the impact of vocational education and training on the labor market outcomes for young people in advanced market economies, and asks whether the results can be extrapolated to countries in the Western Balkans and the EU neighborhood. It draws four main policy conclusions. First, in transition countries, specialized vocational education should not be replaced by streaming or tracking within comprehensive school systems or integrated into general education programmes. Abandoning effective vocational schooling may worsen the labor market outcomes for the less able and disadvantaged young people. Inadequate vocational school systems should be strengthened, while ensuring effective pathways to higher levels of education. Second, while apprenticeship systems enable lower ability students and minorities to access the labor market, they may lock women into traditional female occupations. Well-organized and resourced school-based vocational education may be preferred by women who feel they could benefit from them, and may furthermore reduce school drop-out rates. Third, occupational mobility can be improved by effective school-based vocational education. If returns to such education are sufficiently high, they can incentives mobility. While for developed economies there is little difference in rates of return between general and vocational education, in transition economies, returns to vocational education are higher than returns to general education. Fourth, while occupational mobility is needed for countries undergoing structural change, it should be noted that too much mobility can also be harmful to the skill retention, especially for women. Special attention should therefore be given to providing complementary opportunities for retraining and for lifelong learning to all workers, but especially to women, to encourage and support the desired degree of mobility in the labor market.

Women's Labour Force Participation and Socioeconomic Development: Influences of Local Context and Individual Characteristics in Brazil

We address several key hypotheses about the effects of socioeconomic development on women's labour force participation during the transition from agriculture to industrialism. To this end, we explore differences in women's labour force participation in Brazil by education, marital status, age, and urban or rural residence. We also show how socioeconomic development affects the overall level of women's participation and the differentials by education, etc. Our data are drawn from a large 1973 PNAD (Pequisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicilos) survey conducted by the Brazilian census bureau. Socioeconomic development in different parts of Brazil ranges from pre-industrial agriculture to heavy industry. Using logistic regression, we show that the general level of women's labour force participation does not change with the level of development. Highly educated women are much more likely than the less educated to be in the labour force (net of other influences); this difference is substantially greater than in post-industrial societies. Somewhat surprisingly, the influence of education is the same across the range of development levels in Brazil. Single women are more likely to be in the labour force than married women, and the difference grows during development. Age has a curvilinear relationship to labour force participation, and the old are much less likely to participate in more developed places. Rural women are slightly more likely to be in the labour force at all levels of development.

Comparing the Cattell 16PF Profiles of Male and Female Commercial Airline Pilots

In order to compare the personality profiles of both male and female commercial airline pilots, Cattell's 16 Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire, Form A was mailed to 250 randomly selected male and female commercial pilots (female n=125; male n=125). Returned, completed questionnaires were 92 female and 57 male. Contrary to expectations that female pilots would exhibit profiles similar to those of women in traditional female occupations, the female commercial pilot profile showed greater similarity similarity to the male commercial pilot profile. Of the 16 personality factors, seven factors (intelligence, elation, suspiciousness, practicality, shrewdness, self-sufficiency, and control) showed no significant differences. Six factors showed minor to marginal differences (warmth, stability, conformity, boldness, security, and conservativeness). Three factors showed major significant differences (dominance, sensitivity, and anxiety). On those factors which showed differences, female pilots scored comparatively lower than male pilots, but still well above those of U.S. males and females at large. Findings support the existence of a “Pilot's Personality” independent of gender.

Traditional female occupations and Holland's theory for employed men and women

The main concern of this study was to investigate differences among women and men employed in traditional female occupations who took the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI). The VPI was administered to 151 adult workers in three Social occupations (staff nurses, elementary school teachers, and librarians). In general, the findings for the VPI Social scale for the occupational groups suggest that women when compared to men in the same occupations tend to report similar mean raw scores. In addition, these findings tend to hold for the Investigative, Conventional, Enterprising, and Artistic scales of the VPI.

Making Newspapers Pay: Employment of Women's Skills in Newspaper Production

Technological change blurs the distinction between 'men's work' and 'women's work' and raises questions concerning the nature and definition of skill. This case study focuses on changes in the organization of work in the classified advertising telephone room following the introduction of computerized photocomposition into a Melbourne newspaper publishing organization. Account is taken of the design of the women's jobs both before and after technological change as well as the specific historically developed nature of both product and labour markets. The study demonstrates the extent to which women's skills are devalued when analysis focuses on the nature of changes in traditional male occupations like trades and crafts. When conventional approaches to skill analysis are used, a significant aspect of 'women's work'—emotional labour—is ignored. Consequently the lower value of traditional female occupations is reinforced. Some tentative suggestions are advanced for a reappraisal of the notion of skill.

Marital Satisfaction and Sex Role Perceptions among Dual-Earner Couples

This article proposes that traditional expectations regarding the spouse are still positively related to marital satisfaction. Dual-earner couples were asked to compare their intelligence, competence, professional success, and income to their spouse's and to estimate their marital satisfaction. Their responses showed that marital satisfaction is often related to perceptions that spouses fit sex-role stereotypes (i.e., both husbands and wives perceive the husband as superior). The wives showed significant correlations between marital satisfaction and perceiving husbands as superior on all four dimensions chosen for examination. Even women employed in male-dominated occupations seemed to find these traditional expectations important, and there were no differences between them and women employed in traditional female occupations. For the husbands, significant correlations in the predicted direction appeared only on two dimensions, income and professional success (i.e., their marital satisfaction was related to their perceptions of their wives' inferiority on these two dimensions). However, there was a significant positive correlation between marital satisfaction and perceiving themselves as less intelligent than their wives.

SOME NEGLECTED POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF COMPARABLE WORTH

Comparable worth, the lkivil rights issue of the eighties, is based on the notion that women in traditional female occupations such as nursing make, on average, wages 20 percent lower than men In traditionally male occupations such as truck drivers despite the fact that both jobs are of equal value to the employer. The question is who will bear the cost; employers who implement comparable worth will bear the cost, but if pay inequities continue, women will. The cost can be mitigated if comparable worth is implemented incrementally. The problem cannot be solved by women shifting to male dominated occupations, for that would cost more than comparable worth. Comparable worth would help the women who work full time but are still below poverty and, while it would cost employers, taxpayers would realize a savings of $186 million. If the employer is a public agency, the taxpayer burden remains constant.

Occupational Sex-Typing by Kindergarten and Fourth-Grade Children

Sex-typing of occupations and its antecedent elements have been investigated using different methods across a variety of age groups. Exp. 1 utilized a memory test as its principal criterion, along with a job-preference question to investigate sex-typing in fourth-grade children. On the memory test the mean numbers of sex-typing errors were significantly different; the subjects presenting traditional sex-typed pairings committed far fewer sex-typing errors. The job-preference question also disclosed sex-typed beliefs pertaining to occupational aspirations. The method in Exp. 2 required 66 kindergarten children to supply names to stick figures performing traditional male and female occupations in each of 10 picture cards. A significant number of sex-typed responses were given. Girls were more sex-typed than boys, traditional male occupations were more sex-typed than traditional female occupations, and boys were less sex-typed when their mothers were employed.

Holland's theory and non-college-degreed working black and white women

The main concern of this study was to investigate differences between black and white American women employed in traditional female occupations who took the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The VPI and the SDS were administered to 110 black and white non-college-degreed workers in three occupations (laboratory technicians, sales clerks, and clerk-typists) corresponding to three of Holland's environmental categories (Investigative, Enterprising, and Conventional). In general, the findings for the three VPI and SDS scales and for these six occupational groups are mixed. On the SDS scales, findings indicate that black and white women in the same occupation seem to be far more similar than different. On the scales of the VPI, however, white and black women in the same occupation seem to be more different than similar.

Sex-Typing and Change in the Occupational Choices of High School Seniors: 1964-1975

Comparison of occupational plans and preferences of graudating high school seniors in 1964 and 1975 shows a substantial reduction in the sex-typing Qf occupational choice, especially for female students. Female and male distributions converge over the period, primarily as a result of increased female choice of traditional male white-collar occupations. Choices of traditional female occupations remain sex-typed as do those for skilled male blue-collar occupations. The general trend of convergence was partly counteracted by the emergence in 1975 of choices for a number of sex-typed occupations that had not been sex-typed in 1964. Thus, while convergence in choice occurred, the majoirty of students in 1975 still expected and hoped to enter predominantly male or female occupations.

Motive to avoid success: A profile

In a series of studies, comparisons were made between the self-descriptions of college women whose stories contained motive-to-avoid-success imagery with women whose stories did not contain motive-to-avoid-success imagery. Women exhibiting the motive to avoid success were generally career oriented but aspired to traditional female occupations and were less concerned with making a major contribution to their field. Women not exhibiting motive to avoid success were more likely to choose atraditional female occupations, and their mothers were more likely to be employed in atraditional female occupations. With regard to personality variables, women exhibiting the motive to avoid success reported lower expression of affection, lower self-concept with close associates, higher self-criticism, and higher external locus of control. In general, ambivalence characterized their view of themselves, their relationships with others, and their professional goals. In addition, two sets of verbal cues that evoked equivalent degrees of motive-to-avoid-success imagery were developed.

A REVIEW OF SCHOOLING AND SEX ROLES, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE EXPERIENCE OF GIRLS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract After leaving primary school, most girls experience an ever decreasing set of possibilities so that they gradually become channelled into the traditional female occupations of teaching, nursing, catering, office work, retailing or hairdressing. The secondary years of schooling would appear to be crucial in defining a girl's future, since this is when the selection of subjects to study is made, and decisions are taken about staying on for ‘A’ levels and eventually about entry for further education. The feminist propositions that our society has institutions and attitudes intentionally or unintentionally harmful to both the self concept of women and their life chances, may well include schools. On the evidence so far, there appears to be a strong possibility that in secondary schools in particular, this is the case, and that a complex web of influences is involved.

Demographic Influence on Female Employment and the Status of Women

This paper is concerned with one example of demographically related social change-women's changing work roles. The argument is that continued economic development in our society has led to increases in the demand for female labor which, combined with demographically induced shifts in the supply of unmarried and young women, have resulted in the considerable post-World War II rise in the labor-force participation of married women. The evidence is that these changes are irreversible and will not be greatly affected by the entry of the baby-boom cohorts into the labor market. Nevertheless, women's increasing dissatisfaction with job opportunities can be expected because several of the higher-level traditional female occupations will probably not expand greatly in the near future.

Traditional and Pioneer working mothers

The purpose of this study was to attempt to discriminate between college-educated working mothers who were employed in traditional female occupations (Traditionals) and those who had careers in male-dominated occupations (Pioneers). There were 20 subjects in each group. Three instruments-projective, questionnaire, and attitude scale-were constructed to measure the variables of female role perception, attitudes toward career and career-related variables, and biographical information. Pioneers were found to be more career-committed than Traditionals and to have more successfully integrated the roles of homemaker and worker. Some aspects of family background also differentiated between the two groups.