Procedure

Students were placed into stratified categories and randomly selected from these categories. Students were emailed the invitation to participate in the interview and given a list of potential interview times (Appendix B). When they accepted the interview over email they also sent potential interview times from the list. Interviews were then scheduled. Prior to the interviews, I pilot-tested the interview with a colleague to work out any difficulties or problems with the questions and to get a base for expected time length.

The interviews consisted of 15 questions (see Appendix C). Ten of these questions were inquires into their survey answers. On the survey they were given statements from a MOO and asked to mark each one as feminine, neutral, or masculine. The survey results were analyzed and discussed in Study One. For the survey-based questions I chose 10 statements to focus on based off of results from the survey. Table 5 below lists the questions and their ratings. For these questions I asked what they had answered and asked why. They had their surveys in front of them for reference. Based on the participants' response to the survey, I chose two questions that were ranked very masculine (above a 2.7 on a scale of 3 with 3 as masculine), two that were very feminine (below a 1.3 with 1 as feminine), and two that were neutral (2.0 and 2.1 with 2 being neutral). With these six questions, I hoped to explore what made these statements so masculine, feminine, or neutral. I also chose four questions to examine the sex difference found in some answers. I chose two questions that were rated even or close to even by both sexes and one question that females rated higher than male and one that males rated higher than females.

The remaining interview questions concerned the participants' thoughts and opinions on gendered language and the survey (questions 1, 2, 3, and 15). Question 14 asked if the participants based their rating of feminine, masculine, or neutral off of sex (female and male).

Each participant was scheduled for a half an hour block of time. The interviews were conducted in my office in the campus English building. Participants were read an introduction explaining the interview, the fact it was recorded, and the need for honest answers. Each participant was given the opportunity to use a pseudonym (for those who did not have one I chose one) and then were questioned about basic demographic information. Then I asked the interview questions (Appendix C). Interviews were recorded and lasted between ten and twenty minutes. All participants were queried to see if they would like to view drafts and the final product of the research project. They all answered yes, but had little to contribute when they had the opportunity (perhaps also due to the power hierarchy). After the interviews, the tapes were transcribed. A summary of answers to the interview questions can be found in Appendix D.

Study 2:

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