Reactions to male and female success and failure at sex‐linked occupations: Effects of sex and socio‐economic status of respondents

Male and female subjects from secondary schools classified as high, medium, or low in SES completed a questionnaire previously developed by Feather and Simon (1975). Subjects responded to three short verbal cues in which either a male or female character succeeded or Tailed in an examination qualifying the male (or female) for entry into an occupation (medicine. teaching, and nursing). In responding to each cue, subjects first rated the character in the cue on semantic differential scales to provide impressions of personality, then rated the importance of different possible causes of outcome (causal attribution), and finally rated the likelihood that each of a set of possible consequences might follow the outcome. Results indicated that, while some of the effects previously found by Feather and Simon with the high SES females generalized to the high SES males, they were not evident in the other samples. Many significant effects emerging from the analysis reflected fairly general views about occupations, about sex differences, and about the implications of success and failure. Results were discussed in relation to an interdependent set of influences (involving family, school, sex, etc.) assumed to affect beliefs about male and female sex‐roles in complex ways. 1978 Australian Psychological Society