Attitudes of personnel officials concerning sex-role differentiation in secretarial occupations

Abstract

Based upon the findings reported in this study, the following conclusions may be drawn.

It can be concluded that the personnel officials' sex did not significantly affect their attitudes toward secretarial workers. Male and female personnel officials responded in a similar manner to the 30 office situations described on the Situational Attitude Scale for Secretarial Occupations. These same attitudes were affected, however, by the sex of the secretarial worker described.

The scores on the instrument that referred to secretaries as female (Form B) were significantly higher than those scores on the form that referred to secretaries as male (Form A) for both male and female personnel officials. Therefore, because of these higher sex"."role attitudes toward females, it can be concluded that both the male and female personnel officials view the appropriate sex-role of the secretary as female. The sex-role attitudes of both the male and female personnel officials are biased in favor of females. Thus, this study supports related literature that contends that a majority of both sexes believe that secretarial work is more congruent with the female sex role (Hesselbart, 1977: Fox, 1975; Levinson, 1975).

In view of their higher sex-role attitude scores on both forms of the instrument, the male personnel officials seemed to have a more positive sex-role attitude than female personnel officials toward both male and female secretarial workers. Likewise, the female personnel officials have a less positive sex-role attitude toward both their own sex and the opposite sex in secretarial positions. Contrary to the related literature (Shepard and Hess, 1975; Entwistle and Greenberger, 1972; Iglitzen, 1972; Spence and Helmreick, 1972), females were not "found to be more liberal at every age level than males."

The variables of: (1) location of the ASPA chapter, (2) age of the personnel official, (3) educational level of the personnel official, and (4) self-rating of the personnel official, were not closely related to the attitude scores.

The question is raised as to whether these variables are important in predicting sex-role attitudes, as is suggested in the related literature.