Gender Differences in Socialization Through Television to Occupational Roles: An Exploratory Approach

Abstract

This article presents a methodology for investigating the interaction of sex-role socialization and young people's learning from television about occupational roles. Content analytic techniques were applied to transcribed responses to open-ended questions. Analytic categories were emically-derived in order to preserve through the analysis respondents' belief structure and to realistically assess the importance of television's contribution to these beliefs. The specific research question is whether "lessons" concerning the world of work that males and females are taught in daily life influence what they learn from television about occupations. It was found that television viewing appears to make a limited contribution to young people's images of work roles, and that sex-role socialization mediates occupational role information learned through television.