Abstract
Sex-role egalitarianism, or the degree to which one perceives the gender of an individual to be independent of his/her abilities, rights and opportunities, was tested as a moderator of gender congruence in the evaluation of job applicants. It was hypothesized that scores on a measure of sex role egalitarianism would moderate the evaluation of female or male applicants in masculine-typed, neutral, or feminine-typed occupations. It was expected that the biases against an individual applying for a gender-atypical occupation would be reduced by a high degree of egalitarianism, whereas in neutral occupations, no bias would occur. A sample of 144 undergraduates participated in the study. Results from a sample composed mostly of white undergraduates supported part of this hypothesis with a three-way interaction between gender of applicant, gender type of occupation and sex role egalitarianism. In addition, the characteristics exhibited by the egalitarianism measure used in this investigation provided some interesting insights into the psychometric properties of the construct. Implications of these findings are discussed.
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Brutus, S., Montei, M., Jex, S. et al. Sex role egalitarianism as a moderator of gender congruence bias in evaluation. Sex Roles 29, 755–765 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289216
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289216