TRAIT-BASED AND SEX-BASED DISCRIMINATION IN OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE, OCCUPATIONAL SALARY, AND HIRING

Two investigations examined how occupational stereotypes relate to sex discrimination in the prestige and salaries accorded to "men's" and "women's" jobs, and in hiring decisions. A distinction was drawn between the sex type of jobs (the ratio of male to female jobholders) and the gender type of jobs (the personality traits associated with jobholders). A descriptive study revealed that although the sex type and gender type of most jobs studied were consistent, significant exceptions occurred. Furthermore, most jobs that were "sex neutral" with respect to sex ratios were found to be highly gender typed. Regression analyses revealed that the "masculinity" of a job was a strong predictor of occupational salary and prestige, whereas feminine traits made a much smaller contribution to prestige and were unrelated to salary. The percentage of women jobholders was negatively related to occupational salary, but unrelated to prestige. Finally, a survey of career planning and placement professionals-who rated the suitability of job applicants whose sex and gender type were varied-demonstrated that two processes underlie sex discrimination in hiring decisions: gender-typed personality trait matching and sex matching of applicants to jobs. © 1991 Plenum Publishing Corporation.