Project 3

Methods:

Our survey results ended up resulting in 93% college students, mostly at CCGA. The gender demographic was 22% male, 72% female, and 6% non-binary. We feel that because of the high female participant rate that the data from the survey may have been slightly skewed, and that the results reflect the high rate. Although the racial demographic was not very split (72% white, 22% Black or African American, 5% was a different identity), that it didn’t play a big role in the results of the survey.The survey was supposed to be geared towards college students ages 18-24, but we received some data from people older than that. That being said 81% of the participants were 18-24, 11% were 25-34,and 7% were 35-44. This diversity in age gave us a bit wider data than we originally planned. Along with race and age and gender, relationship statu was recorded. With a record of 89%, the majority of the people who took the survey are single and have never been married. The other 11% recorded that they were in a domestic relationship. Of the participants, 100% were US residents and currently attend College of Coastal Georgia.

The survey was distributed by each member of the group. It was sent out over several social media platforms. It was also distributed on the CCGA student news feed. The survey was put on the news feed to maximize the amount of surveys completed by college students ages 18-24.

Results:

General attitudes:

Most respondents had either experienced gender inequality or knew someone who had (66% Yes they had; 17% I knew someone who has). Only 17% said that they haven’t experienced any form of gender inequality.

As shown in figure 1, the overwhelming majority feels that gender inequality is an important topic worth discussing (64% strongly agree, 27% somewhat agree, 9% indifferent). Contrary to this attitude, the participants feel that society views gender inequality as not as pressing of a matter. 9% feel that it is the most important issue, 73% as somewhat of an issue, and 18% not an issue at all.

Politics and Social media:

We found that the responses for politics and social media were a little bit different than that of the rest of the survey. The responses didn’t seem to convey as strong of opinions as those already mentioned. For example, 75% of participants felt that the current lack of female participation isn’t fair, but other issues are more potent right now, and that the country's efforts should be more focused on that. However, no one voted that they felt that men and women have equal representation in politics. An equal 75% of participants felt that we are working toward equality in politics and womens’ participation. The following question was asked about social media and a couple of the written responses are shown: Are women more prone to sexualize their social media accounts than men are, and why?

“Yes, because some females want to feel like they have everyone’s eyes”

“Yes, because it is what is expected, even before social media was a thing”

“No, they do not. Men do it too, however society views them in a higher standard than women”

“Yes, it is rewarded with positive feedback”

Education and Workplace:

As shown in figure 2, gender didn’t play a very big role in the way that people voted this year. Based on the survey data shown by Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics the gender gap nationally on those who voted based on gender was way higher than that shown in our survey.

Our data showed most participants felt that men and women were treated equally (42% said the same, 25% women are treated better, 25% other, and 8% said women were treated better) in college classrooms.

As shown in figure 3, the majority of participants feel that any gender should be able to get any job. This is in line with the rest of the survey data that suggests that men and women are completely capable/deserving of performing the same tasks. This is similar to a study done by the NCBI that found no significant difference between men and women performing different tasks and multitasking (Hirnstein, et al. 1). Although comparatively we have much smaller data, the trends tend to be the same as professional surveys.

One of the more interesting statistics comes with the question, “Given that most fields have more men working in them, should women be hired over men in order to balance the ratio?” 55% of participants said that it completely depends on the education or experience, 36% said no, if men are more qualified then they should get the job, and 9% said that yes, it is only fair that women have equal representation. Participants also believe to some extent that men and women should get the same wage if they have the same degree or experience

As shown in figure 4, only 33% of participants believe that men and women are equally desired in leadership positions. Contrary to this belief, the Harvard Business Review’s survey shows that out of the 12 leadership jobs, men perform better in only 3 of those. Women’s effectiveness seems to be similar if not better than mens, and our survey doesn't show this same theme (Zenger and Folkman 1).

Discussion:

In our research, it shows that the majority of the survey takers from CCGA have strong opinions on Gender Inequality. Each graph shows an increase in positive outcomes from the questions. Whilst among the students that think that women are as equal as men, there is data that correlates to the students that think that women aren’t as equal and that men are above them. Some even think that Gender Inequality should be “somewhat discussed."

One study suggests that about 50% of the students in Figure 4 only believe that women are less desired to have a high leadership position because they are a woman and men are naturally the better leaders. According to Lauren A. Rivera, she and her crew at Northwestern University, had a study show that faculty committees considered the women’s relationship status and not the men;s when wanting to hire (Rivera, pp.1). Rivera mentions in her study that committee members assumed that heterosexual women whose partners held academic or high status jobs were not “moveable” and they weren’t granted other offers when they were available to the other male and female that applied (Rivera, pp.1). Being that in our data, over 64% of CCGA students believe that a woman is able to do any job a man can do. While the other 36% of people think that there are only certain jobs that are gender specific. According to Alison M. Konrad and Jeffrey Pfeffer, they mention in an article called “Understanding The Hiring of Women and Minorities in Educational Institutions'' that there has been substantial research that inhibits the entry of women and ethnic minorities to get into jobs, organizations and occupations (Konrad and Pfeffer, pp. 141). Meaning that there has been a good bit of research on the hiring process for women.

As to mention from that as well, Paula K. Lorgelly and P. Dorian Owen did a Barro-Lee model dataset on the effects of schooling between male and female and the economic growth. They found out that in the study, male schooling had a very positive outcome in economic growth whereas females had a negative influence in schooling (Lorgelly and Owen, pp.1). They also found out that this is caused by the inspiration from Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. They all have a high increased growth in schooling but the female percentage of schooling is low, causing this to make a deletion of the female education (Lorgelly and Owen, pp.1). A lot of the women in these countries don’t get to go to school as much as the men do so this is causing a decrease in the learning process throughout life.

Our data from Figure 2 shows that 75% of CCGA students of the genders of the 2020 presidential candidacy did not matter. The other 17% either didn’t vote, or somewhat but wasn’t the main reason but there was an 8% of students that voted yes. The gender mattered. According to Lane Kenworthy and Melissa Malami state that “the timing of women’s suffrage, the share of women in professional occupations, and cultural attitudes toward the role of women in politics each play a role in accounting for variation in the degree of gender inequality in political representation around the world” (Kenworthy, Malami, pp.1). The importance of women in the political system matters and holds a high standard in the system.

The question, “Are women more likely to sexualize their accounts than men,” showed varied results that conflict each other. The written responses showed completely different answers that are shown above. Compared to the professional results done by the National Academy of science, “Our findings raise the possibility that sexualization and appearance enhancement are markers of female competition, occurring in environments in which incomes are unequal and status competition is highly salient” (Blake 5), there is an underlying theme that those who do believe that women sexualize their accounts either do it for money or fame. Even though we had varied results, the theme that women sexualize their accounts for fame is still a theme that is shown.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, our study has found that gender inequality is in fact still happening to this day. 66.7% of students ranging from the ages 18 to 24 have experienced a situation where they were treated unfairly due to their gender. 16.7% of the students know someone who has experienced this issue and 16.7% of the students have not experienced and do not know of someone who has. With this information we can safely say that this is still a pressing matter and needs to be talked about more.

Limitations:

Our study had only used college students ages 18-24. While this was useful and an essential part of our research, I think it would have been more beneficial to widen the age range. Since gender inequality has been taking place as early as Caesar's time in Rome according to Nuti, in her book “Injustice and the Reproduction of History” she writes about the injustice of women compared to men in her introduction of her book covering the topic of gender inequality in history. I also would like to make the survey world wide, so we could get results back from women and men around the world. According to The Roots of Gender Inequality in Developing Countries, “India stands out for the underrepresentation of women in the labor force; men are three times as likely as women to be working” (66). With information like this and more we could gather more of a wide range demographic and see if and how men and women experience gender inequality. We can see if culture has an effect on the way one may see gender equality, and as a whole gather beneficial results to help.

In future research, we hope to cover the ground of gender inequality as a whole. Having results from people all around the world and all ages to help us have more of an accurate understanding and grasp on how to put an end to this issue. Overall, our group’s survey did a good job getting an insight on college students' opinions and helped open up the conversation of gender inequality.