Influenceability by gender-major stereotypes in occupational choice: The distinction between math-engineering and humanities university students

Aim of this study was to compare the way occupational choices of male and female students of math-engineering and humanities are influenced by personal and impersonal gender-major stereotypes. Also, gender importance and implicit major identification were tested as moderators of these effects. Method was correlation. Among 700 third year and higher math-engineering and humanities undergraduate students of Sharif University of Technology and University of Tehran during the year 2010 were selected 192 by convenience sampling. Implicit stereotype and major identification were measured using Greenwald, McGhee and Schwartz’s implicit association test (1998). In addition, participants were asked about their gender importance and occupational choice. In the math-engineering group, the interaction of gender and major identification predicted the tendency to choose a job related to one’s current major, whereas in the humanities group, the 3-way interaction of gender, personal stereotype, and gender importance predicted it. Both effects were in the expected direction. Students of the two major-groups are different with regard to the type of influencing stereotype (impersonal in math-engineering vs. personal in humanities) and the moderator of its effect (major identification in math-engineering vs. gender importance in humanities). This finding is explainable by the longevity of male majority presence in math-eng, as contrasted with the more recent majority presence of women in humanities. Results of this study can be applied to the identification of vulnerable students and design of interventions aimed at reducing negative effects of gender stereotypes on their occupational choices.