The Effect of Gender-Stereotypes on Explicit and Implicit Career Preferences Reuma Gadassi and Itamar Gati Hebrew University of Jerusalem Presented at the International Counseling Psychology Conference Chicago, March 2008

2 THE GOAL studying –the possible effects of gender-stereotypes on the process of choosing occupations –the effects of approaching career choices in terms of: Preferred occupations versus Preferences in important career-related aspects The question: does the method of eliciting occupational aspiration moderates the effect of gender-stereotypes on occupational choices?

3 METHOD  Participants 226 females (74.1%) and 79 males (25.9%) who entered the Future Directions Internet site, and chose to fill out the research questionnaire in return for feedback. –Age: 17-30, mean=23 (median = 22) –Years of education: mean=12. 7 (median 12)

4 Future Directions An Israeli website in Hebrew, designed for assisting deliberating individuals in making their career decisions. It is a public service and is offered free of charge.

5 Making Better Career Decisions - an Internet-based career guidance system ( The Rationale the dialogue is divided into distinct stages, corresponding to the PIC Model’s stages (Gati & Asher, 2001): - P rescreening (based on sequential elimination) - I n-depth exploration - C hoice

6 Making Better Career Decisions

7 On-line Questionnaire 1.Background information (age, gender, years of education) 2.Participants were asked to "specify 5 to 10 (or more) occupations that you think are suitable for you" (the directly elicited list) 3.The Career Preference Questionnaire used to elicit the participants’ career preferences in terms of career related-aspects (relative importance & preferred levels) 4.Personal information: participants were asked to report a mailing address for receiving feedback

8 Procedure  The data consisted of two lists of occupations for each participant:  the directly elicited list – the preferred occupations as reported by the individual  the indirectly derived list – occupations that were found compatible with the user’s aspect-based preferences by MBCD based on the sequential-elimination-search  Gender Dominance Ratings of occupations (1-feminine – 5-masculine)  Each participant received (by mail or ):  a list of promising alternatives that was produced by MBCD  a user code for MBCD (= 16 US$)

9 Design Preferences in career- related aspects MBCD Indirectly Derived list of recommended occupations Data from participant: Directly Elicited list of preferred occupations comparison Occupational information database Matching preferences & database

10 RESULTS

11 Conclusion The comparison of the directly elicited and the indirectly derived lists of occupations supported the hypothesis: using preferences in terms of aspects may lead to a less gender-stereotypical choice for both men and women

12 Implications  When discussing clients’ future options, it is important to elicit the individual’s preferences in terms of aspects rather than in terms of occupational titles  In this manner, individuals’ career decisions are less likely to be influenced by stereotypes, and would perhaps consider a wider range of occupations

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