Sex: The Missing Variable in Human Factors Research

Abstract

During the past 35 years, an ever-increasing number of women has been entering the work force and assuming numerous jobs that were traditionally reserved for men. To see if human factors research has been keeping up with the problems and questions this trend inevitably poses, the content of two leading human factors journals (Human Factors and Ergonomics) was analyzed for the time period 1965 through 1976. Nearly half the 859 studies examined included only male subjects; only a quarter included females, either exclusively (6%), or with males (19%); and nearly a third gave no indication of the subjects' sex. Even in studies that included both males and females, only a third did analyses to determine whether there were sex differences. The desirability of considering the sex variable in human factors studies and several of the problems associated with doing so are discussed, and recommendations are offered.

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