Effects of Additional Men on Prestige and Desirability of Occupations Typically Performed by Women

To examine the effects of masculine participation in occupations typically performed by women, 200 subjects rated the prestige and desirability of five occupations following information that proportions of male practitioners would increase or remain constant Findings showed that increased participation by men increased the prestige and desirability of all occupations. Ratings on 12 bipolar adjective scales from the semantic differential showed that increases in prestige and desirability were accompanied by attributions of increased activity, security, usefulness, success, and wealth to occupations admitting additional men.