The Gendered Selection of Activities and the Reproduction of Gender Segregation in the Labor Force

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract SES 0000201 PI: Cecilia L Ridgeway, Shelley J Correll This project combines experimental and survey methods to assess a new analysis of how women and men come to occupy different occupational positions. The theoretical foundation uses ideas from status characteristics theory to explain women's and men's different conceptions of their competence (under specified conditions), and subsequent occupational aspiration. Predictions from this theory will be tested in a small groups laboratory. The second part of the study examines survey data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of high school students for evidence of the same processes as the experimental research finds. Results will be important for extending an established theory in micro-sociology, as well as for showing some real-world applications of the theoretical principles developed.