Josh Newbold

9/29/14
Pols 1100
Mr. Ferlo
Project One
Our group had the gender topic. Our basic research question was if the
American public favors males over females for a political position. I personally really
wanted to have this topic because I wanted to see if the population really is sexist. I
think it is interesting that some people see women differently than I do. I think that
women are equal to men, to an extent, and that they should have the same
opportunities. I dont like the fact that some people dont vote for someone just
because of their gender. If they are suited for the job, they are suited for the job. It
shouldnt matter if they are male or female. People should look at a candidates
policies and agenda when they are deciding on who to vote on, not the candidates
gender. We worked to answer our basic research question by printing out the surveys
that we were going to distribute to people in the public. We thought of a question to
add to the survey, and we thought of basic rules we should set to help the survey to be
more effective.

We brainstormed on what our hypothesis should be, and we eventually came up

with one. We hypothesized that when people took the survey, more people would find
Patrick Sorensen more sufficiently ready to be a U.S. Senator than Patricia Sorensen.
We proposed that the majority of people are sexist, and do not feel as comfortable
with a female politician as they do with a male politician. People may have odd
stereotypes about women such as they are not mentally capable, or their hormones do
not allow them to function on the same level as men. This may or may not be true, but
I believe that women and men should have the same opportunities, and that it is wrong
to say a woman is less competent than a man when they have the exact same resume. I
think that this is a major problem in the world. Women should not be discriminated
against just because they are a different gender. I think that many political candidates
have been overlooked because of their gender. The decision on who to vote for should
not be made simply on gender biases. It should be a well-informed, thought out
decision. It is a real problem that women do not always have the same rights as men,
and that is why we hypothesized that people would side with Patrick Sorensen instead
of Patricia Sorensen.

We divided the surveys into even workloads so that each person had to survey
five people. We agreed just to ask the person to fill the survey out, and not give them
any other information other that which was on the paper. We didnt want the people to
know that the candidates are not real people because then their answers might have
been different. In order to get the most honest answers out of the people we surveyed,
we all followed these rules. We gave different people surveys that had the exact same
information of two candidates, but they were different sexes. The survey we had
people fill out had a page saying telling about the candidates. The candidates were
both fifty-two, married, had two children, and both were born and raised in Sandy,
Utah. It states things like their education, work experience, community service, and
issue positions. First we had people read the information, then we had them fill out a
little information about themselves.

We asked their gender, religious affiliation, and non-specific age. There were
five boxes they could check for each question. The boxes were strongly agree, agree,
neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree. The first question was if they thought the
candidate had sufficient education to be a U.S. Senator from Utah. Number two asked
if they had sufficient work experience to be a U.S. Senator from Utah. Next the survey
asked if the candidate demonstrated strong leadership skills. Question four was if they
had the kind of life experiences that would help them understand average Utahans.
The last question was if the person taking the survey supported more of their policy
positions that they opposed. One of the questions we wanted to add to the survey was
if the person taking the survey was Democratic or Republican. We wanted to do this
because we thought it might help create another side to the survey. If we knew what
political party the person taking the survey was, we could see which party
discriminates against women more, Democrats or Republicans. I thought it was a
good idea because it would help us get a better perspective on the gender bias topic.

Our group compiled our data and put it into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
Three women under the age of twenty-one took the survey. Two of them agreed and
one strongly agreed that Patricia Sorensen had sufficient education to be a U.S.
Senator from Utah. All three strongly agreed that she has sufficient work experience
to be a U.S. Senator from Utah. Two strongly agreed and one agreed that Patricia
Sorensen demonstrated strong leadership skills. One agreed, one was neutral, and one
disagreed that she does not have the kinds of life experiences that will help her
understand average Utahans. Two agreed and one strongly disagreed with the question
that they supported more of her policy positions than they opposed. Two women in

the age group from twenty-one to thirty years took the Patricia Sorensen survey. Both
of the women agreed with the first question. One was neutral and the other agreed
with the question that Patricia has sufficient work experience to be a U.S. Senator.
They both were neutral on question three, which asks if she demonstrates strong
leadership skills. One strongly agreed and one agreed with question four and one
agreed and one was neutral for question five. Six females in the age group from thirtyone to forty took the survey. One strongly agreed, four agreed, and one was neutral on
question one. On question two, one strongly agreed, three agreed, and two were
neutral. Four females agreed that Patricia demonstrates strong leadership skills, while
two were neutral on the subject. Two strongly agreed, three agreed, and one disagreed
with question four, which questioned if they thought she has the kinds of life
experiences that will help her understand average Utahans. One strongly agreed, two
agreed, one was neutral, one disagreed, and one strongly disagreed with question five.
Four women that took the survey were in the age group of forty-one to fifty. One
strongly agreed and three agreed with question one. All four strongly agree that
Patricia Sorensen has sufficient work experience to be a U.S. Senator from Utah.
Three agree and one is neutral on question three. Two agree, one is neutral, and one
disagrees with question four. One was neutral and three disagreed with question five.
We surveyed two women in the age group of fifty-one through sixty, and one strongly
agreed and one agreed with question one. Both agreed that she has sufficient work
experience to be a U.S. Senator from Utah. One agreed and one was neutral on both
questions three and four. One woman was neutral and the other disagreed with
question five. One woman over sixty-one took the survey. She checked agree with the
questions one, two, and three. However, she disagreed with question four which stated
that Patricia Sorensen has the kinds of life experiences that will help her understand
the average Utahans and she disagreed that she supported more of her policies than
she opposed.

The majority of the women we surveyed agreed or strongly agreed with most of
the questions one through four. On question five more of the women answered that
they were neutral or disagreed than agree. That means that they find Patricia pretty
much capable of being a senator, but the majority of them do not support the majority
of her ideas.

We surveyed all those females, but we surveyed an equal amount of men. We

surveyed one male under twenty-one years of age, and he answered neutral to
question one. He agreed that Patricia has sufficient work experience to be a U.S.
Senator, but he answered neutral to the question if she demonstrates strong leadership
skills. He also answered neutral that she has the kinds of life experiences that will help

her understand average Utahans. He agreed that he supports more of her policies than
he opposes. We surveyed two males in the age group of thirty-one to forty. They both
agreed that Patricia has a sufficient education to be a U.S. Senator from Utah. One is
neutral and one strongly disagrees that she has sufficient work experience to be a U.S
Senator from Utah. One agreed and one answered neutral to the third question, and
they both answered neutral on the forth question. One agreed and one disagreed on
question five. Four males in the age group of forty-one to fifty were surveyed. On
question one, one agreed, and three disagreed that Patricia Sorensen has sufficient
education to be a U.S. Senator from Utah. Two agreed, one disagreed, and one
strongly disagreed that she has sufficient work experience to be a U.S. Senator from
Utah. Two agreed and two disagreed that she demonstrates strong leadership skills.
One strongly agreed, one agreed, and two disagreed with question four. One agreed,
one was neutral, and two disagreed with question five. We surveyed two males in the
age group of fifty-one through sixty. They both agreed that she has sufficient work
experience, education, and that she demonstrates strong leadership skills to be a U.S.
Senator from Utah. They both, however, disagree that she has the kind of life
experiences that will help her understand the average Utahan, and both disagree that
they support more of her policy position than they opposed. We surveyed two men
over sixty years old. One agreed and one was neutral on question one, two and three.
On question four, one was neutral and one disagreed. One was neutral and one
disagreed on question five also.

Out of all the men we surveyed, only one actually strongly agreed a question.
There were definitely more disagrees, strongly disagrees, and neutrals than there were
agrees and strongly agrees. Most do not think that she has enough education or work
experience or strong enough leadership skills. Most of the men did not think she
would be a good U.S. Senator.

I think that this proves that many men in the U.S. are sexist. The women
thought, for the most part, that Patricia was able to be a Senator, while the men
thought quite differently. I think that people doing this project in the future should
prepare, brainstorm, and carry out their plan better than we did. We could have been
more organized and should have practiced better communication skills than we did.