After concluding my survey I found that the most effective question I asked was probably to draw a boy and a girl. Basically each child I asked answered the question accordingly. The second most effective questions were probably 8 and 9 (the questions concerning if they would play with trucks/dolls, typical "boy/girl" toys.) My original goal for my research was not met, I only got to survey one parent so after that I decided to direct my research toward age and gender roles.
I am excited to share what I have learned with my class, I think for my presentation I am going to scan the surveys (or at least just the pictures) because I feel like that will be the best way for After working with this topic for a couple of months my knowledge has really expanded on childhood socialization. It was very interesting for me to apply what I had collected from my blog into my real life.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Monday, December 10, 2012
Applied Research: Update
So far I have given the survey to seven kids and one parents. Three of the children were 6, two were 4 and one was 10. Almost all of them drew a boy and girl in a generic manner, the girl with long hair and the boy with short hair. Many of the older kids responded to questions 8 and 9 how I expected, "I wouldn't play with a truck/doll because that is a boy/girl toy", it surprised me that the younger kids were more open to playing with toys that did not traditionally abide to their gender. I wish I made more of my questions like that because that is where I am finding responses closer to what I was expecting. However, some of answers concerning favorites seem to be gender neutral things (such as a favorite show being spongebob). I am having trouble surveying the kids parents because they are not as available to me so I think my findings are not going to result in if parents impose gender roles on their children but something more along the lines of gender roles are not considered until a certain age. I am excited to continue my research, a little disappointed that it is not going where I originally intended but I will be happy if I am able to conclude something from the survey.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Applied Research: Finalized Plan
The purpose of my survey is to see if children confide in gender roles that are influenced by their parents. Below is the survey I plan on asking participants:
`Hi, my name is Morgan
Raspanti! I am a senior
at Immaculate Heart Academy and would like to invite you to take a
minute and be a part of my research for my sociology class! For this class I
have been writing a blog about childhood socialization, as we reach the second
half of the quarter the blogging is being directed towards applied research.
Firstly I am writing this to ask for permission to ask your child some
questions (attached on back) and to ask you a shorter series of similar
questions. All help is appreciated! Thank you! (:
Please sign on the dotted line below:
x……..………………………………………..
Parent Survey:
1. Age:
2. Gender: Male/Female
3. What is your child’s favorite
-
Color?
-
Toy?
-
Game?
-
Show?
Children Survey:
4. Age:
5. Gender: Male/Female
6. What is your
favorite
-
Color?
-
Toy?
-
Game?
-
Show?
7. What games do you
play with your parents?
8. What do you want to
be when you grow up?
9. Would you play with
dolls? Why or why not?
10.
Would you play with trucks? Why or why not?
11. Who is your best
friend?
12.
Can you draw a boy and a girl?
Monday, December 3, 2012
Gender Wage Gap Response
First Article
Second Article
Both articles (linked above) suggest that the wage gap could be due to employee behavior. They suggest women tend to negotiate less aggressively, hence being less inclined to ask for a raise. Both also suggest that on average women work fewer hours than men. In addition to being more likely to seek part-time work, women are also more likely to have gaps in their employment history and to enter lower-paying fields. The one article particularly speaking about doctors found that the female doctors tended to be in lower-paying specialties, have fewer publications, hold fewer administrative leadership positions.
The first article I read suggested that the pay gap is exaggerated, and not actually present, and is attributable to the choices made by women concerning the amount of time and energy they devote to a career because there is no gender gap in wages among men and women with similar family roles. While the other one suggested that the gap is still very much present and that when they ran the numbers taking into account differences in specialties, the average salary for women still feel behind that of their male colleagues. I find it interesting that the first article was written by a man and the second was written by a woman. The first article excuses the proposed wage gap, as it does not harm men, while the second expresses concerns toward the causes and continuation of the wage gap. I think to improve the wage gap it is important for women to be ambitious. All of the facts that suggest a wage gap is not real but merely a result of a woman’s lifestyle choice, can also support woman deviating the wage gap. If more were to make choices concerning their occupation similar to the choices males are making that are increasing their wages, woman will be able to close the gap.
Second Article
Both articles (linked above) suggest that the wage gap could be due to employee behavior. They suggest women tend to negotiate less aggressively, hence being less inclined to ask for a raise. Both also suggest that on average women work fewer hours than men. In addition to being more likely to seek part-time work, women are also more likely to have gaps in their employment history and to enter lower-paying fields. The one article particularly speaking about doctors found that the female doctors tended to be in lower-paying specialties, have fewer publications, hold fewer administrative leadership positions.
The first article I read suggested that the pay gap is exaggerated, and not actually present, and is attributable to the choices made by women concerning the amount of time and energy they devote to a career because there is no gender gap in wages among men and women with similar family roles. While the other one suggested that the gap is still very much present and that when they ran the numbers taking into account differences in specialties, the average salary for women still feel behind that of their male colleagues. I find it interesting that the first article was written by a man and the second was written by a woman. The first article excuses the proposed wage gap, as it does not harm men, while the second expresses concerns toward the causes and continuation of the wage gap. I think to improve the wage gap it is important for women to be ambitious. All of the facts that suggest a wage gap is not real but merely a result of a woman’s lifestyle choice, can also support woman deviating the wage gap. If more were to make choices concerning their occupation similar to the choices males are making that are increasing their wages, woman will be able to close the gap.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Applied Research Detailed Plan
Here is an excerpt from my sociology text book, Sociology: A down to earth approach page 73, that I thought was a good explanation for the purpose of my research...
Socialization into Gender: Learning the Gender Map:
"For a child, society is unexplored territory. A major signpost on society's map is gender, the attitudes and behaviors that are expected of us because we are a male or female. In learning the gender map (called gender socialization), we are nudged into different lanes in life- into contrasting attitudes and behaviors. We take direction so well that as adults, most of us act, think and even feel according to this gender map, our culture's guidelines to what is appropriate for our sex."...
So basically, society teaches us what is considered feminine and masculine and children who have had the least life experience still seem to conform to these norms... how does this affect their growth? To define how much children I plan on asking them and their parents a series of questions, without predisposing them to the true purpose of my research...
- Who?
- Participants?
- Children
- I predict participants will be between the ages of 3 and 11
- Male and Female
- A CCD class I teach, the childcare center I work at, and my nieces friends
- Adults
- I predict the participants to range from ages 25-45
- I know there is a big gap between these ages but I am probably going to ask the parents of the children I interview and I assume they will range somewhere between these ages
- What?
- Materials
- Survey Question Examples for kids
- What is your favorite color?
- What toys do you play with/ games?
- Who are your friends?
- I expect their answers to fulfill their gender roles
- Survey Question Examples for parents
- What do you and your kid do together?
- Do you pick out your child's clothes/toys?
- I expect the parents to have answers that show the influence they have had on their children abiding to gender roles
- When?
- Where?
- Location- most likely... Church, Gym, and my house
- Why?
- To evaluate how gender roles influence children
- How?
- I am going to survey male and female children as well as male and female adults to compare the outcomes of their responses and evaluate the part that gender roles play in an average lifestyle
Friday, November 9, 2012
Applied Research
After blogging for the first academic quarter I am now approaching my second quarter "applied research". Which is pretty exciting because now I can apply everything I have concluded through my posts to the real world. There are a lot of different types of research methods but I was thinking I would mostly value survey research and/or naturalistic observation. Between everything that I have written on my blog I think a big focus was the part that gender roles play in childhood socialization. So I plan on surveying the children I know, boys and girls with age varying, about how gender roles effect them. Of course they do not really know what gender roles are so I plan on being discrete about the object of my study. It will be interesting to see if they respond to the questions how I predicted.
*( Note: This applied research plan is incomplete but its just a starting ground!)
*( Note: This applied research plan is incomplete but its just a starting ground!)
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Eighth Post: Choice
(I typed this like two weeks ago and thought I posted it but unfortunately either it didn't go through or I forgot....)
This is my last blog before I start collecting applied research, than I plan on directing my posts towards that. Under the broad topic of childhood socialization each of my blogs managed to differ so I would like to use this post to summarize what I have learned from my observations, but I also have a good idea for a post sooo I am just going to do both!
In my previous post I mentioned how girls should start being educated about bullying at an earlier age. Its an unfortunate truth but in today's society the youth needs to be exposed to the potential harms of the world to avoid danger. It is a pleasant feeling to assume every person has good intentions, but as people age and are frequently exposed to the danger's of the world they realize it is naive to believe just that. Children on the other hand do not have a developed world view and are vulnerable to the attacks of a predator because of their innocent optimism.
It is unfortunate that people cannot feel completely secure in their own neighborhoods. When my oldest siblings, who are now well into adulthood, were in elementary school on Halloween they were allowed to walk up and down the block alone, their biggest precaution was to check their candy before they ate it. When I was in elementary school an adult would trick-or-treat with us but there were still very upbeat, communal,and safe vibes in connotation with trick-or-treating. But in present day when my niece goes trick-or-treating, in the same neighborhood my siblings and I did, she has to be overcautious to protect her personal security.. I have noticed now that Halloween celebrations mostly take place at school, trunk-or-treats, or even local mall's. The traditional emphasis on trick-or-treating throughout your neighborhood seems to have less emphasis. What I am observing could be explained by Edward Sutherland's Differential Association Theory, it suggests that from the different groups we associate with we learn to deviate from or conform to society's norms. So, since my niece Alyssa associates with her generation she denies the tradition my siblings and I were accustomed to and is more inclined to participate in the church's "trunk-or-treat" or go look at a haunted house. However, Alyssa does not feel like she is violating what we considered normal because (due to the profound threat of strangers kids trick-or-treat less) majority of her peers are doing the same as she.
This is my last blog before I start collecting applied research, than I plan on directing my posts towards that. Under the broad topic of childhood socialization each of my blogs managed to differ so I would like to use this post to summarize what I have learned from my observations, but I also have a good idea for a post sooo I am just going to do both!
In my previous post I mentioned how girls should start being educated about bullying at an earlier age. Its an unfortunate truth but in today's society the youth needs to be exposed to the potential harms of the world to avoid danger. It is a pleasant feeling to assume every person has good intentions, but as people age and are frequently exposed to the danger's of the world they realize it is naive to believe just that. Children on the other hand do not have a developed world view and are vulnerable to the attacks of a predator because of their innocent optimism.
It is unfortunate that people cannot feel completely secure in their own neighborhoods. When my oldest siblings, who are now well into adulthood, were in elementary school on Halloween they were allowed to walk up and down the block alone, their biggest precaution was to check their candy before they ate it. When I was in elementary school an adult would trick-or-treat with us but there were still very upbeat, communal,and safe vibes in connotation with trick-or-treating. But in present day when my niece goes trick-or-treating, in the same neighborhood my siblings and I did, she has to be overcautious to protect her personal security.. I have noticed now that Halloween celebrations mostly take place at school, trunk-or-treats, or even local mall's. The traditional emphasis on trick-or-treating throughout your neighborhood seems to have less emphasis. What I am observing could be explained by Edward Sutherland's Differential Association Theory, it suggests that from the different groups we associate with we learn to deviate from or conform to society's norms. So, since my niece Alyssa associates with her generation she denies the tradition my siblings and I were accustomed to and is more inclined to participate in the church's "trunk-or-treat" or go look at a haunted house. However, Alyssa does not feel like she is violating what we considered normal because (due to the profound threat of strangers kids trick-or-treat less) majority of her peers are doing the same as she.
One more thing.... A quick synopsis of what I have gathered so far.
My posts have had so much variation that I thought it would be difficult to sum them all up in one sentence. I was trying to skim over them and see what really relates and than I realized that the concrete definition of Childhood Socialization that I included in my second post really does the job..."The term social refers to a relationship or interaction between two or more people, who by definition respond to each other and influence each other’s behavior. Socialization is an important process in child development. Stated simply, it is the process whereby individuals, especially children, become functioning members of a particular group and take on the values, behaviors, and beliefs of the group’s other members. Although the process begins shortly after birth and continues into adulthood, the age of early childhood is a crucial period of socialization."... It is almost funny that after this month of posting what I have concluded is what I started with. But to be honest in my second post I had less awareness about what this definition was really saying. This portion of the blogging project has shown me the vital importance of Childhood Socialization, how children are socialized does not just mold the basis for their personal development but it molds the basis for the development of our future society.
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