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Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Differences in Job Context and Work-Activity Preferences

Military leaders have increasingly expressed concern in response to the lack of demographic diversity within certain military occupations (e.g., women and African Americans being underrepresented in aircrew positions), as well as to recent United States Secretary of Defense instructions to open all military jobs to women that had previously been closed to them. Although a lack of demographic diversity in certain military occupations may be the result of recruiters steering recruits to specific occupations, the lack of demographic diversity may alternatively reflect preexisting differences in the types of job contexts and work activities in which recruits from different demographic groups are most likely to be interested. To evaluate demographic differences in recruits’ own work interests, we evaluated how interest in 12 general Job-Context factors and 28 specific work activities distinguished entry-level jobs by gender, race, and ethnicity in a sample of recent United States Air Force enlistees (N = 1,018). Results showed significant Realistic–Social-factor differences (i.e., interest in things vs. people) in Job-Context and Work-Activity factors most attractive to men versus women (Prediger, 1982). Differences were also found among racial/ethnic minorities and their Caucasian counterparts. Implications for military service and recruiter strategies to increase demographic diversity in occupations in which women and minorities are currently underrepresented are discussed.