Gendered career choice: Is sex-stereotyping the cause or the consequence?

The interaction between school pupils' schematic representations of 'social' and 'technical' roles and the impact that the 'sex-typing' of careers has on occupational choice were investigated using stimulus vignettes. Questionnaire data pertaining to occupational choice were collected from first-year university students enrolled on courses designated as either 'social' or 'technical'. The prototypical in-group positions for the two occupational areas were calculated and used as the basis of vignettes depicting either a male or female school pupil experiencing difficulty in deciding whether to pursue a technical or socially oriented career. The vignettes were presented to 107 school pupils aged 16-18 who were asked which career area they thought the target pupil was likely to choose. Results indicate that subjects were able to identify correctly the prototypical characteristics utilised in the vignettes and that these were of greater importance in their expectation of course choice than the 'sex' of the target pupil.