Effects of increased occupational participation by women on androgynous and nonandrogynous individuals' ratings of occupational attractiveness

An experiment was conducted to test the idea that androgynous individuals would not devalue high-prestige occupations sustaining an increase in the proportion of women practitioners. Male and female college students identified as androgynous or nonandrogynous were led to believe that three high- or three low-status occupations would show an increased proportion of female practitioners or would be stabilized in terms of the proportion of women practitioners. As predicted, nonandrogynous individuals devalued high-prestige occupations expected to show an increase in women practitioners. In contrast, androgynous individuals rated the high-prestige occupations more attractive if they were expected to show an increase in the proportion of women than if they were not. Neither of these effects generalized to occupations of moderate prestige. Finally, there was some indication that the devaluation effect does not generalize to high-status occupations that fall outside the intellectual domain.This article is based on the second author's senior honors thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the honors college requirements. The first author served as the major advisor for this project. The authors wish to thank Alvin Goldstein, Director of the Psychology Honors program, for his helpful guidance and encouragement throughout all phases of this research, and June Chance for her helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.