Study 2 Question 2:
What reasons do males and females have for their perceptions of gendered language?
Question two could be addressed by different answers in the interview,
but was particularly a focus of questions 11 and 12. Questions 11 and
12 were chosen because males and females rated these survey questions
differently. Question 11 inquired about survey
statement 38 "You sound like a little kid." The females marked
this neutral (3) or feminine (2). Only two of the females in the neutral
category chose neutral. The males had three feminine and one neutral answers,
with the one neutral male choosing neutral. This question was rated higher
(more masculine) by males than females who took the survey, however these
eight participants' answers do not reflect this. Both Rick and Sam saw
girls saying this. Zach choose neutral because he could see both his parents
saying this, thus it was both (or neither) masculine nor feminine to him
since he saw both sexes saying it. Alicia, Veronica, and Sarah saw this
as neutral, Sarah saying "lots of people say this." Renée
saw it as something she would say and Luglar did not see it as something
males would say. This does not seem to suggest any differences between
what the females and males chose.
Interview question 12 was based off of survey
statement 39: "it's cool when people tell on each other." This
was rated higher (more masculine) by females then males, by almost a point
(females rated it at about 2.4 and males at 1.5). On the survey, seven
of the eight people interviewed marked this neutral. The only non-neutral
rating was by Renée (female varied)
and she rated it masculine and said it was a "stupid
thing a guy would say." Luglar did change her choice to masculine
during the interview because "guys don't
care if they tell. Girls would be nice about it." Sam,
Alicia, and Zach
saw the comment as applying equally well to both sexes. Rick
and Sarah though the comment sounded immature
and not appropriate for college students. Like the question
one, these answers did not suggest any particular reason for females
and males to rank some statements differently.
Participants | Procedure | Analysis and Results: Question 1, Question 2, Question 3, Question 4 | Discussion