College students' self-estimated and actual knowledge of gender traditional and nontraditional occupations: A replication and extension

Abstract

This study investigated the degree and congruence of students' estimated and actual information about gender traditional and nontraditional occupations as well as the relationship of students' gender stereotyping of occupations to predicted and actual knowledge. One hundred female and 102 male college students rated how much they thought they knew about 18 male-dominated and 18 female-dominated occupations. They also rated these 36 occupations for their appropriateness for men vs. women, and completed an instrument that measured their actual knowledge of these and a wide variety of occupations. Women rated themselves more knowledgeable about female- than male-dominated occupations. Men rated themselves as equally knowledgeable about the two. Men and women themselves as equally knowledgeable about the two. Men and women didn't differ in any area of their actual knowledge. There was little relationship between actual and predicted scores for either sex. However, men's errors did not relate to the type of occupation, while women overestimated their scores on traditional occupations and underestimated on nontraditional ones. No relationship was found between the degree to which subjects held gender stereotypes of occupations and either actual or predicted knowledge scores.