Sex-Role Stereotyping as a Factor Influencing Counselors' Advising of Black Male Students to Investigate Selected Allied Health Professions

Due to the dominance of women in allied health professions, men can be considered as minorities in these fields. Blacks and other ethnic minorities are also under-represented in allied health and other health professions. Yet it is anticipated that an increase in the number of minorities trained as health professionals will result in higher quality health care for minorities. A study was undertaken to determine whether sex-role stereotyping by high school counselors posed a significant barrier to black males interested in allied health careers. A three-part questionnaire was mailed to 360 high school counselors. The first part obtained counselor ratings of the percentage of males and females working in nine health professions, and their perception of the level of ability needed for each profession. Part II consisted of three student profiles, a rating scale for student ability, and a list of nine professions from part I; the third part of the questionnaire asked for demographic information from respondents. The results of data analyses showed that in general, careers selected for males were perceived to be male dominated and careers selected for females were perceived to be female dominated across ability levels. The only exceptions were high-ability black females and average ability black males. The mean of the male/female scores for selected careers for all students at each ability-level was lowest for average-ability students (with the exception of average-ability white males) and the highest for high-ability students. The findings indicate that counselors demonstrate less bias toward male dominated careers when advising average students, suggesting that average ability black males are more readily advised toward allied health careers than are high-ability black males. (NRB)