Identified and explored issues surrounding growing gender imbalance among professionals in student affairs. Interviews with 26 student affairs professionals revealed interrelationships and the collective impact of a variety of issues on student affairs professionals and student affairs' role within higher education. The complexity of the issue of…

The results of a study of the self-efficacy of 59 male and 71 female students, at a midsized western university, using a psychometric assessment instrument called the Career Attitude Survey (CAS) developed for the study, may be summarized as follows: (1) females but not males exhibited greater self-efficacy for traditional female occupations than…

Assessed attitudes of 58 counselors and 56 counseling graduate students toward nontraditional careers. Results showed male counselors were more negative toward nontraditional careers than females, and counseling students were more negative than counselors. Participants were much more negative toward men than toward women having nontraditional…

Investigated existence of gender differences in perceptions of availability of intrinsic and extrinsic job outcome factors in male-dominated, female-dominated, and sex-neutral occupations in undergraduate college students (N=216). Determined perceptions differed as a function of subject gender and occupational sex-type; importance of job outcome…

Investigated students' information about gender traditional and nontraditional occupations and the relationship of students' stereotyping of occupations to predicted and actual knowledge. There was little relationship between actual and predicted scores for either sex. However, men's errors did not relate to occupational type, while women…

Compared interpersonal characteristics and vocational certainty in 268 male and 57 female college freshmen choosing technical majors. Both males and females were found to be controlling and assertive, although women showed more traditional feminine traits as well. Women were less sure of their career choice. (JAC)

Examined student (N=188) responses to measures of Expectancy and Valence to six male- and six female-dominated careers. Found that Expectancy X Valence interaction for occupation accounted for variance in choosing occupation; gender differences were marked and consistent across expectancy, valence, and likelihood of choosing occupation, varying…

Examined perceptions toward student career choices of 197 Canadian teachers. Each teacher examined one of eight vignettes describing student currently making career decision. Vignettes varied by gender, type of occupational choice, and traditionality of extracurricular activities. Found that teachers were more likely to encourage traditional…

This study focused on the career choice dynamics of college students by examining sex differences in self-efficacy toward occupations that were perceived by the subjects as traditionally male- or female-oriented. The usefulness of self-efficacy as a predictor of career choice and the relationships between careers considered, efficacy beliefs about…

Investigated the influence of sex role self concept on the choice of college major/career in 186 students. Results showed both sexes chose their major for traditional reasons (e.g., status, service) and placed little importance on considerations of sex appropriateness. Personal interests were more influential than future marriage plans. (JAC)

The present experiment failed to replicate a widely-cited sexist bias in people's evaluations of occupations that was originally reported by Touhey (1974). College students (N=303) did not downgrade the prestige of masculine professions or upgrade that of feminine professions when told that the proportion of other-sex (i.e., minority)…

Survey of 100 female and 100 male college students revealed that female students entering nontraditional career areas still experience greater conflict between the importance of their work and home values than do men in the same occupational majors. Yet, the two sexes share many similarities in their career-related values and values toward home…

Examined precollege data for men and women students (N=632) who successfully completed nontraditional and traditional (for women) college study. Results showed few differences between men and women in high school who subsequently graduate in the same field. Differences were shown in mechanical reasoning ability, and technical versus service…

Interaction between cognitive styles, stages of paradigm-disciplinary development, and gender stereotypes could explain underrepresentation of women in science. Because male scientists' cognitive styles were found to be related to career choice, evaluation behavior, research success, and productivity, they are also related to the position of women…

Student attitudes toward men and women successful in occupations traditionally associated with the other gender were studied through ratings of a hypothetical stimulus person. Results with 230 undergraduates found that they expected deviation from occupational gender types to be personally costly for women but not for men. (SLD)