The Impact of Evaluation Procedure on Occupational Sex-Typing at Different Educational Levels

This article examines the impact of two evaluation conditions on sex-typing of occupations in Israel: "vague instructions" (no specific criterion for assessing gender-based occupational stereotypes), and "gender-related capabilities" (i.e., gender attributes perceived as essential for practicing an occupation). The sample consisted of 614 respondents from four different educational groups: junior high school students, high school students, university students, and teachers. Sex-typing was examined according to three occupational categories: "feminine," "masculine," and "gender neutral," reflecting the representation of the genders in each field in Israel. On the whole it was found that in the "gender-related capabilities" condition respondents expressed less sex-typed perceptions of occupations than in the "vague instructions" condition. In addition, the findings revealed that the university students expressed less sex-typed perceptions than the other education groups in both evaluation conditions. Regarding the impact of gender, the female respondents were generally less sex-typed than the males regardless of evaluation condition. Several practical recommendations are provided in an attempt to counteract sex-typing of occupations at different educational levels.