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Thursday, October 4, 2012

The Male Librarian and the Feminine Image: A Survey of Stereotype, Status, & Gender Perceptions

"The Male Librarian and the Feminine Image: A Survey of Stereotype, Status, & Gender Perceptions." Library & Information Science Research / James V. Carmichael.
North Carolina: Elsevier, 1992.

"An individual's sex is identified at birth; the social roles individuals are expected to perform because of their sex relate to gender. The growing corpus of both men's and women's studies provide evidence of a growing awareness of inequities suffered by women throughout history, and the reaction of men who feel similarly trapped by social expectations of them. ... Nearly 60% of subjects confirmed the existence of a male librarian stereotype (see Table III, p. 428). By age group, the largest percentage of affirmative responses received to the stereotype question were in their 20s (81%) and the smallest percentage were 60 or older (44%). By library type, school librarians were more aware of a stereotype than any other group (72%), and special librarians, least aware (53'o). Over 69% of gay men recognized the existence of a stereotype, almost 10% more than the average for the whole sample. These results would suggest a heightened sensitivity to negative stereotyping by those working in the most highly feminized area of librarianship, and by those who have reason to have experienced sexual oppression."