#12: Results

After I received all of my responses for my survey there were certain elements that surprised me, while other parts went along with what I was expecting.  Through my survey I was trying to see if there is a difference in opinions on gender norms depending on peoples gender and age.  I had people rate scenarios of children breaking gender norms from 1 to 10 with 1 being completely acceptable and 10 being not acceptable. When it came to the differences in gender I noticed that men were more likely to rate a scenario with a girl breaking a gender norm such as being on a wrestling team, with a higher number than the scenarios with boys breaking gender norms.  This surprised me because while doing my research earlier in the year, it seemed that men were much harsher when it came to young boys breaking gender norms.  When I compared the responses based on the age of the person who took the survey, I noticed that the people who fell between the 30-50+ age range had a much less lenient view on the scenarios then did those who fell in the 13-25 age range.  I expected to see this sort of generational difference. I think the fact that the 13-25 year olds grew up in a more modern society that had much more accepting values played a big role in their opinions of these scenarios.

When I first started my research gender development was a topic that I had had an interest in, and that interest only grew the more I learned about the topic.  We live in a society where there unfortunately is still a negative stigma on children who break gender norms.  There are currently steps being made to make this a more accepting society and to make kids feel comfortable to be whoever they want to be.  I have learned a lot through my research and it has actually helped me become a more accepting person.  I hope that this is just the start of my research and that this is something that I can continue learning more about in upcoming years.

#11: Revised Summary/Plan/Update

While forming my survey I stuck with my plan that I spoke about in my previous post about finding out what scenarios people find acceptable when it comes to children breaking gender norms. I tried to make the scenarios in my survey as general as possible as to not sway anyone’s opinions while answering the questions.  I sent the survey out to people with a wide variety of ages in order to see the difference between generations and their opinions on gender norms.  Although I have not gotten all of my responses back, and am planning to send my survey out to more people, the few that I have received back have so far followed what I expected.  Based on the research I did prior to starting my survey, the responses that I am getting are correlating with people’s gender and age. I am hoping once I am finished I will be able to see the difference in opinions between different ages and genders.  I am also hoping to be able to see if people have a threshold for what they find acceptable within a gender.  I am excited to continue to get responses to my survey and see if these answers will reflect my hypothesis.

#10: Strategy for Research

For my project I am planning to do an online survey.  For my survey I will be asking for the participants gender and age.  The main thing I am looking for is the difference between male and females when it comes to their opinions on children breaking gender norms.  I am also interested in seeing if there is a difference in generations when it comes to what is considered acceptable and not acceptable for which gender norms kids can break.  After the research I completed last semester, I expect to see that men are less likely to find children breaking gender norms acceptable.  I also expect to see that most people will find it more acceptable for girls to break their gender norms, than it is for boys to break their gender norms.  I am excited to conduct this project and see if my results match up with all of the research I have done on gender development.

#9: Suggested Research Method

My plan for my project is to do a survey.  I want my survey to show the differences between male and female views on children breaking gender norms.  I am looking to see what each gender finds acceptable when it comes to gender norms.  I am hoping this will help me back up my hypothesis I came up with after finishing my research on this topic.