Kaytlin Porter

Period 7

Project One: Gender

Overview:
For this project we did an experiment to find out if there would be
any biased toward certain candidates based on their gender. We printed
out information sheets for two candidates running for office. The
information of both people was the same. There were only two slight
differences: gender and the name of the candidate. The information
sheets had details about their background, education, work experience,
community service, and issue positions that they had. To conduct this
experiment we gave one information sheet with one survey to each
respondent. The respondent was required to fill out some information
before answering the questions about the actual candidate. They told us
their age, gender and religious affiliation. Since we got this information
from the respondents it helped us pinpoint our results to get more a more
accurate conclusion.

Hypothesis:

When I received this assignment I had the initial impression that if

the same information was given, then there would not be a difference in
the results between genders. However, as I discussed with my group their
predictions for this experiment I found some other views. I found that
some people thought that since Americans have only seen the results of a
male for president, they would be more comfortable and naturally choose
the male candidate. The more that my group mates discussed their
theory, the more I began to understand their view points. If this result
were to be true because of the theory behind the hypothesis which was
previously stated, it would create some worry to me. If we, as Americans,
were to choose the male only because that is the standard we are
comfortable with then could we ever progress? I do not believe that you
grow unless you push yourself past what you are comfortable with. Only
when you try new things do you find new results, new opportunities. In
order to grow or develop you need change and need to be open to new
ideas. This is what politically worried me the most with the hypothesis we
made.

Methodology:
For our survey we had one information sheet and one survey sheet
for each candidate, Patrick or Patricia. We gave one survey of only one

candidate to each respondent and asked them to read about the

candidate and then answer the questions that asked what they thought of
whom they had just informed themselves. In the survey that we gave out
to the respondents it asked questions such as if they believed the
candidate had sufficient education to be a U.S. Senator from Utah. They
also asked about the work experience, leadership skills, life experience,
and the policy positions of the candidate. These questions were used to
find the respondents opinion of what they had read in the information
page of the candidate before. They could answer the question using
Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.
Through answering these specific questions, we were more capable of
getting more accurate results. Asking multiple specific questions allowed
us to know exactly where the gender bias would come from and in what
areas it is stronger than others. It is interesting to see what would be
considered impressive qualifications for one gender, and not for the
other. These were all the type of bias we wanted to discover with this
experiment that we conducted. Our question that we added asked if they
would give their vote toward this candidate that was described to them.
We wanted to know if the difference between genders would, on average,
sway the votes of the respondents.

Results:

For the first question we asked was, S/he has a sufficient education
to be a U.S. Senator from Utah. Our results showed most people agreed
for both Patrick and Patricia. I noticed there were a greater number of
females who Strongly agree or Agree with Patrick than Patricia.
However, overall, Patricia received more Strongly agree than Patrick did.
For the second question we asked we wondered if S/he has sufficient
work experience to be a U.S. Senator from Utah. With this question
specifically, I found a pattern that age did not have a major effect on the
votes. It was fairly evenly spread when it came to how strongly they
would agree or disagree. The third question we asked referred to their
leadership skills. For Patrick there seemed to be more Neutrals than for
Patricia. This could point towards a biased in gender. If more people
agreed that Patricia had stronger leaderships it could indicate that more
is required of males in order to be considered a good leader. Question
number four asked if s/he has the kinds of life experiences that will help
him understand average Utahans. This question followed the same
pattern as question three; Patrick had more neutrals than Patricia.
Question five asked if the respondent supported the majority of their
policy positions. Question number fives results appear to be fairly evenly
spread and Patricks responses look similar to the results of Patricia. IT
mostly contained Agree for both people throughout all ages and
religions.

Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Research:

Overall from doing this experiment I do not think that we could
make any firm conclusions stating any biased between genders. Most
people that we interviewed did a fairly good job putting aside any
judgment based on gender and focused on the facts of the qualifications.
Some suggestions I would make for other groups who did this experiment
was to make the age groups even. This means, ask the same number of
people from each age group. Within the age group it would be helpful if it
was even between which gender was being tested. An interesting spin
could be to test only males with the female candidate or the females with
the male candidate. Seeing how one gender views the other could change
the results. These are just a few suggestions that another group could try
or that I would want to try differently if I were to repeat this experiment. I
believe that we could not form very firm conclusions because the
experiment was not performed with enough structure in order to avoid
other variables that could sway the results.