Participants

To best examine various perceptions of gendered language through interviews I had to choose participants from Study One that represented all participants. Because some of the surveys had a large percentage of neutral answers, I wanted to explore why certain participants clearly favored neutral, and why a larger percentage did not. Examining the numbers, there appeared to be a wide divide between the surveys. Fourteen percent of the surveys had mostly neutral answers (69% or more). The other 86% had only an average of 18.5% neutral answers. So, I divided the surveys into two categories: "neutral" for the surveys with 69% or more neutral answers and "varied" for the remaining 86% of the surveys. The categories were then divided into sex (female and male) to examine the sex differences in answers I found from the surveys. Thus, I sorted the Study One participants into stratified categories: neutral female, neutral male, varied female, and varied male.

The final stratified category was "anonymous." Forty-six of the surveys were categorized as "anonymous" because the participants did not put down contact information so they could participate in the interview. These surveys consisted of neutral (about 10% percent) and varied (remaining 90%) answers Table 4 shows the breakdown of surveys into these five groups.

Table 4

From the neutral female, neutral male, varied female, and varied male stratified categories, I randomly selected two participants and one standby. The standbys were to be contacted if one of the selected participants could not join. I contacted all three participants who were in the neutral female category to better guarantee I could interview two for the study. I ended up with all three neutral females, one neutral male, two varied females, and two varied males. Unfortunately, a participant in the neutral male category cancelled at the last minute.

Participants chosen ranged in age from 18 to 20 and were either first-year students or sophomores.

An interesting side note is that all participants I interviewed were students in my class. Although I had surveys from six classes (only two of which were my classes), the majority of students randomly selected were students from my class. The few that were not my students never responded to the invitation for an interview, and all the randomly selected standbys were my students. I believe this occurred because when I handed out the surveys in my classes, I stressed my need for interview participants, so my students were more likely to put contact information down. This stress may not have occurred in other classes where the surveys were handed out, so other students may have been less likely to put contact information. My students also knew me better and were probably more likely to want to be interviewed by me than students who did not know me.

The fact all of my interview participants were my students may have impacted my research. These students were probably more comfortable with me and more willing to share their thoughts and opinions. However, it may have made them more conscious of what they said. I am sure my feminist beliefs surfaced in my classes, so the students may have been more conscious about what they said because they might not want to say something I would consider "wrong." This level of consciousness may have also occurred simply because I am their teacher and they do not want to appear "stupid" or "wrong."

There was also a clear power hierarchy with these student interviews. This hierarchy would have appeared even if the students were not my own, however I believe it was stronger because the interviewees were my own students. They were well aware I have the power of grading and evaluation over them. They had spent about half a semester in my class, so the teacher-student relationship/power hierarchy was firmly in place. I stressed the value of their honest answers, however my power may have influenced their level of comfort sharing and may have created a hierarchy that was not necessary in the interviews.

Study 2:

Participants | Procedure | Analysis and Results: Question 1, Question 2, Question 3, Question 4 | Discussion