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Sex Segregation: Agency (Masculinity) is hired more than Communal (Femininity) in the US Army.

Touro College

Research Design PSY 645

July 22, 2015

Abstract

This study examines the sex segregation of employment in the US Army. Independent Variables include Gender, Agency and Army Personnel. Dependent Variables include Hirability, Competence and Time. The goal is to test the strength of the interviewed candidates for Army personnel jobs in order to prove that the evaluators focus more time on the male candidates than on the female candidates during the interview.

The expected results are that more male candidates where hired for the positions of General, Lieutenant General and Major General Jobs at the US Army in comparison to female candidates.. These finding are significant statistically, and in conclusion they indicate that our study has run the necessary pilot tests and behavioral measures to come to a valid conclusion.

Keywords: sex segregation, hirability, competence, employment interview.

This study examines the sex segregation of employment in the US Army. Distinguishing between the stereotypical traits in both female and male genders which are built on agency (male) and communal (female) dependent variables of time, hirability, and competency, we lean on officer roles and candidacy interviews in the US Army. The research focuses on males being hired more often than females in ranking officer positions such as Major General, Lieutenant General, and General.

Two research studies or experiments were carried out based on gender specific occupations and sex segregation of employment (Cejka, M.A. Eagly, A.H. 1999) and the employment interview times (Anderson, C. W. 1960). The purpose of this study is to observe the sex segregation in the US Army by using the research methods mentioned above. The study was made in order to show that success in occupations which are dominated by one gender requires personal characteristics that are typical of that sex and that the US Army has male dominated occupations which focus on hiring, spending more interview time and finding competency in masculinity (agentic) more than the femininity (communal) characteristics.

Method

Participants and Procedure

This is a two by two by three design that will consist of 12 groups. 240 participants (40 males and 200 females) whom we will pull from the Mturk population and give a monetary compensation at the end of the study (say a $50 walmart gift card). The 12 groups will be divided between the 240 to view 1 video in each group, altogether making 20 people in each subgroup. The videos will show army candidates of both male and female genderwho are interviewed for title specific roles at the army, such as, for example: Male Agentic General, Female Agentic General, Male Communal General, Female Communal General, Male Agentic Major General, Female Agentic Major General, Male Communal Major General, Female Communal Major General, Male Agentic Lieutenant General, Female Agentic Lieutenant General, Male Communal Lieutenant General and Female Communal Lieutenant General. Using a 5 point Likert-type Scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) we ask questions to the participants in order to find if the position is a male dominated position, if the interviewer spends more time on those they want to hire and like the most, if they are more competent for this job position. After we do pilot tests to insure accuracy of data and questionnaire efficiency. A Multi Analysis of Variance — ANOVA- will be used to show the results of our tests.

Pilot test

We will conduct video interviews in two different ways: first- using communal words and second- using agency focused words so that the viewers can fully understand the masculine and feminine differences in the videos.

We should have an even amount of male to female candidates interviewing in the videos so that we can point out the right conclusions of the study.

We will need to define the following 3 key words as follows:

Major General – Third from the top in command. Commands division sized units of 10,000 – 15,000 soldiers. Salary is $8,500 - $13,000 a month depending on years of service.

Lieutenant General – Second highest in command. Commands corps sized units of 20,000 – 45,000 soldiers. Salary is $11,000 a month.

General – First in command. Commands all of the above mentioned, requires 30 years of experience and service. An Army general is responsible for major areas of command, including operations that fall within a geographic area. Salary is $14,000 - $17,000 a month.

We will add the job descriptions of all 3 personnel positions in order that all the participants know what kind of positions the candidates are applying for as these positions are not ordinary job positions and the average person may not have an understanding of the positions.

After the videos are showed to the participants, verbal feedback will be expected from them before administering the written questionnaire. We will verbally ask the participants a series of questions to test their knowledge of the video shown. Most of the questions are aimed at proving the hypothesis and finding out the participants' opinions about the videos.

Measurement of time, hirability and competency of applicants

Using a 5 point Likert-type Scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) we will measure the hirability, competency and amount of time spent on candidates who are hired for positions mentioned in the US Army. Based on the videos shown to the participants we will make test in order to see gender stereotypes in the industry and sex segregation. There are more female participants in this study to manipulate the measure in order to get data that males are more likely to be hired for the positons than females. The frequency data is expected to pull towards the right of the distribution scale to note the negatively skewed distribution. Thus pulling the 3 measures of central tendency to the right.

How I tackled threats to internal and construct validity

Between group subjects – one group watches set of videos (Communal specific) and the other group watches another set (Agency specific). We will use both verbal and written feedback.

What we expect to see?

We expect to find the conclusion to our theory that the army is biased and that masculinity is the dominant characteristic in the hiring process.

References

Anderson, C. W. (1960).The Relation Between Speaking Times and Decision in the Employment Interview. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 44, No. 4,267-268

Cejka, M.A., Eagly, A.H. (1999). Gender-Stereotypic Images of Occupations Correspond to the Sex Segregation of Employment. PSPB, Vol. 25 No.4, April 1999 413-423.