Use of ethnically matched role models in career materials for hispanic students

Abstract This study investigated the effects of reading descriptions of sex-typed careers in which much of the career information was presented by successful role models in the careers. The role model for each career was of the nontraditional sex for the career. The 218 ninth-grade Hispanic subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: one with career descriptions with Hispanic role models; one with descriptions with non-Hispanic models; and a no-treatment control group. Both the Hispanic and the non-Hispanic role model groups had less sex-stereotyped post-treatment attitudes toward the careers they read about than the control group toward these same careers. The Hispanic role model group, but not the non-Hispanic one, also had significantly less sex-stereotyped attitudes than the control group toward the careers they did not read about, thus indicating a significant generalization effect associated with ethnically matched role models.