Gender is widely considered to be a major contributing factor in workplace inequality. This is largely due to the gendering of occupations by labelling certain jobs as more appropriate for one gender than the other. In this paper, I examine gendered occupations and how they are perceived through two studies. The first study uses occupations from an existing Affect Control Theory dictionary to obtain information about which jobs are considered gendered. The second study uses these gendered occupations to measure how perceptions of individuals differ when they are in occupations that are expected or unexpected for their gender. The findings of this study may have implications for the study of gendered occupations as well as the examination of hiring practices and discrimination.
