Evaluating Implicit and Explicit Measures of Career and Gender

Abstract

Recent changes in the world of work have shown the existence of simultaneous patterns of traditional and modern career and gender. As a consequence there is a gap between the rapid transformations and the less agile changes in attitudes about those themes. However, not always is possible to access those attitudes through explicit measures. The present study had the objective to create and validate an implicit association measure of career and gender, and also to compare implicit and explicit attitudes related to those themes. Fifty undergraduate students (29 women) with an average of 22 years old answered the test of implicit association (IAT) career-gender, and two open questions about the roles of men and women in the work market. The results indicated that the IAT is capable to identify tendencies associating women and modern career and also men and traditional career. It was also possible to characterize differences of tendencies between men and women, with and without work experience.