Bailey Van Wagoner

Period 6

March 8, 2018

Project One: Opinions on Women’s Rights

Overview

As the researchers began their discussion, they discussed possible subjects. Since most of

the group was comprised of women, many of the topics were concerning women’s rights. These

included abortion rights, women’s marches, and feminism. The basic research question became:

“what are the opinions about women’s rights and feminism, and is there a contrast between the

two opinions?” To further examine the topic, the researchers decided to create a set of questions

concerning a range of issues involving women along with one question that asked for an opinion

on the topic of feminism. The survey was then conducted with men and women of any age.

These results were entered into Google Sheets to be organized and split into their respective

genders and ages. Once there, the results were transformed into graphs where they could be

easily analyzed. The team then came to conclusions based on the data collected.

Hypotheses

There were two hypotheses that were decided upon by the researchers. First, the women

would respond more postively to all questions. Second, both genders would have a less positive

response to the question about feminism compared to the other questions. These hypotheses, if

proven true, could shed light on the progress of women’s rights. The feminist movement was
originally created in order to promote women’s rights and give those fighting for these values a

title that they can call themselves and their cause. Over time, the word feminist became

associated with what many people label “extreme and ridiculous” ideas. It became synonymous

with misandry and naivety in the eyes of the general population. The core values of feminism

were misinterpreted and thereby disregarded by many. This could potentially impede the

progress of women’s rights. If, for example, a campaign for easier access to birth control is

labeled as “feminist,” many opponents of that term may not support the cause when they

otherwise would have joined. Many other “feminist ideas” that could further the progress

towards equality may be disregarded as a result of the label and nothing else. If these hypotheses

were proven true, the results would support this theory and raise awareness for the need of a

rebranding of the term “feminist.”

Methodology

The group began creating questions with the goal of representing a range of issues

concerning women. Questions were made by the team to include social, economic, moral, and

political topics. This varied range would give the researchers an opportunity to examine potential

differences in the opinions of men and women on particular topics. The topics concerning

women included:

1. The women’s rights movement is necessary in our society today.

2. Abortion should be allowed and decided by the woman.

3. A wage gap exists between men and women.

4. The media pressures women to conform to beauty standards.

 5. Women’s marches are helping to remind Americans about important issues.

In addition to these questions, researchers also asked for age and gender in order to

determine the demographic from which the answer came to assist with later analyzation. The

most important question, however, was the final topic of the survey. “You are a feminist.” This

question was made to determine the attitude of the population toward the feminist movement as a

whole and their place in it.

The researchers considered including “how many siblings do you have?” as one of our

questions. This was suggested as another factor that determines a person’s attitude toward

women’s rights. The group thought that a larger family may result in lower scores in all

categories, but especially in the category of abortion. This question was excluded from the

survey because the researchers decided it would distract from the main purpose of the survey:

examining the affects of gender on the opinion of women’s rights and feminism.

Those particpating in the survey had the choice between four different answers: strongly

disagree, disagree, agree, or strongly agree. Each of these answers had a corresponding number

with “1” being strongly disagree and “4” being strongly agree.The researchers considered adding

the fifth option of neutral or no opinion. However, they decided to exclude that answer choice

because many people who found the topic controversial would choose the neutral option to avoid

perceived judgement. This would create fewer solid responses and could result in inconclusive or

skewed data.
 From this point, the group then split and surveyed a variety of people. The data was then

collected into one spreadsheet. These results were organized into teen males, teen females, adult

males, and adult females. The numbers could then be organized.

Results

After compiling the data, the research group created the graph below to more easily

analyze the data.

As can be observed, every average of the females’ responses was higher compared the the men’s

responses. This shows that men tend to agree less frequently and less strongly than women when

it comes to women’s rights. Almost all of the averages of male answers lied somewhere between

2 (disagree) and 3 (agree). The men surveyed were therefore split almost evenly between those
that agreed and those that disagreed. The female averages, however, were all 2.5 or higher. This

shows that the women surveyed more often agreed than disagreed.

When analyzing the average for the question regarding feminism, the researchers found it

to be significantly lower than the average of most other questions for both genders. Both men

and women agree less frequently and less strongly with the ideas of feminism when compared to

other women’s rights issues. While the male average was clearly lower, the female average was

significantly lower for all except one other statement (women’s marches are helping to remind

Americans about important issues). However, this statement was the only inconsistency, so the

hypothesis is still relevant.

Conclustions and Suggestions for Further Research

Considering all the data, the two original hypotheses were supported. The averages of

male answers was consistently lower than that of the female answers. Females more often agree

with these issues than men do. This supported the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis was

supported by the lower average for the question regarding feminism. Both men and women

agreed less frequently with this question. This shows that even those who supported women’s

rights agreed less readily to calling themselves feminists.

When exploring further research, the group suggests testing other the impact of other

factors on the support of women’s rights. These factors could include education level, economic

background, or political viewpoints. Understanding the other factors that contribute to a person’s
view of women’s rights can aid in creating education programs, policies, and campaigns to

promote gender equality.