The Effect of Masculine-Feminine Clothing Image on the Perception of Occupational Characteristics and Occupational Suitability(II) -Blouse.Skirt-

남성적-여성적 의복이 직장여성의 직업특성과 직업적합성 지각에 미치는 영향(II) - Blouse.Skirt를 중심으로-

The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) the effect of a masculine-feminine image in women's blouse·skirt on the perception of the wearer's occupational characteristics and suitability of the clothing for certain occupations, and (2) the effect of perceiver's sex, sex-role attitudes, and occupation on the perception formed by the function of clothing cues. The research design of the study consisted of 2(skirt color) × 2(blose color) × 3(masculine-feminine blouse forms) factorial desing of a blouse·skirt set. The experimental materials developed for this study were a set of stimuli and 2 response scales. The stimuli consisted of 12 drawings of woman's clothing made by systematic manipulations of 2 independent variabels (color and form) in drawings of blouse-skirt. The dependent variables were the perceptions of the wearer's occupational characteristics and suitability of the masculine or feminine clothing for certain occupations. Occupational characteristics were measured with a 7-point semantic differential scale composed of 21 bipolar adjectives. Perception of occupational suitability was assessed with 12 items of 5-point Likert type questions. In addition, the Bem Sex-role Inventory was used to assess perceiver's sex-role attitudes. The subjects consisted of 393 men and 389 women, whose occupations were classified as professionals, secondary school teachers, and white-collar workers. The data were analyzed by factor analysis, MANOVA, ANOVA, Mean and S.D. Three factors emerged to account for the perception of occupational characteristics. These factors were given the titles of (1) activity, (2) potency, and (3) evaluation factors. The activity factor was the largest, including 9 adjectives and accounting for 33.3% of the variance in blouse-skirt. On the blouse-skirt set, the form of the blouse had an effect on activity and evaluation for both sexes, while the color of the skirt had an effect on evaluation for both sexes as well as on potency for men. Strong effect of color and form on blouse·skirt were seen in perception of occupational suitability for the occupations of attorney(masculine) and secretary(feminine). On suitability for secondary school teaching occupations, the effects of color and form of blouse·skirt differed by sex of the subjects. Male subjects determined suitability by the color of the blouse, while female subjects determinied suitability on the basis of the form of the blouse. Perceiver's sex-role attitude and occupation partially influenced the perception of the wearer's occupational characteristics and suitability of the clothing for certain occupations.