Feminism of fathers A secondary research analysis

Mithun Asher
Sociology 4308 Quantitative Research Methods

Introduction
For my Quantitative research assignment I would like to see if there is a correlation
between having a strong father figure and a persons feminist tendencies. Feminism is commonly
and wrongly seen as a mindset that only women share to destroy men. However it is a social
theory that aims to eradicate patriarchy and is a mindset that can be shared with anyone aiming
for an egalitarian society. Men and strong father figures can be silent proponents for the
empowerment of women and equal attitudes towards all aspects of life. I will be studying the
General Social Survey (2010) to explore how the respondents Fathers social standing impacts
their opinion on a mothers role in the workplace and how they view women in power.

Literature Review
Before conducting my own analysis I explored existing literature on the subject. The
topic of feminism is a cornerstone of social theory. Family relations are also often explored in
social research. There was a decent amount of literature that existed that looked at males and
feminism, and fathers and feminism, however I had to tease out information regarding males
with strong fathers and feminist reactions.
For this project I referenced 7 peer reviewed articles. Amongst the articles I was able to
condense the common findings into three themes. The first overarching theme found regards role
confusion amongst young men as they start their own families. The second theme is the
realization of more men are taking on traditional female roles within the household. The third
theme is caution amongst left realist ideologies and against mens rights activist.

Role confusion amongst young men as they start their own families
Traditional gender roles and boundaries are becoming softened or demolished. Second
wave feminism is now the norm. Families need to decide who holds what role within their
nuclear family. Men receive conflicting messages from their peers and parents when told what
they are supposed to do and who they are supposed to be. Sugarman (2009) takes notice of how
young men today are told of the heroism of their baby boomer fathers, and chastised by their
mothers for not recreating such masculinity. She notes how mothers can act as a hegemonic
patriarchal force in the household creating emotional divides. Sugarman alludes the influence the
mother has on her sons husbandly duties are driven by a Freudian force. There are power
vacuums created in family dynamics as the shift of power even outs between the husband and
wife, and a patriarchal force, (in the articles case an overbearing mother in law) can fill the void.
Maher (2013) discusses how non-traditional families how to handle gender roles and
apply feminism in their lives. In traditional heterosexual relationship there are already preset
roles the partners can conform to. However amongst same sex couples, family dynamics are
reconstructed. Maher does a content analysis on Hollywood films that have a sperm donor as a
central plot line. A common trope in society is asking who the father is of a child and who that
child has as a role model. With non-traditional family units father figures can come from many
places, even those who are not male. Alternatively there is a concern of those with traditional
values, and their feelings of emasculation when they are unable to produce a child and require
aid of a sperm donor.
Patriarchal ideologies are often in conflict with feminism. Levin (2010) recounts her
exposure to a hyper-masculine culture showed her the strength of feminism. Forced against her
will to go to a playboy club, Levin encountered different waves of feminism at play. She made

notice of the girls who were there submissively, yet enjoying themselves. But there were also
some females working there for empowerment and by choice because it was a lucrative way to
pay for their academic fees. Although the club acted as a breeding ground for patriarchism, there
were ways people working within could cheat or defeat hegemonic structures.
Men should take on traditional female roles within the household
The commonality of the husband leaving those house for work while the wife stays
behind is a diminishing one. The norm today is both parents work. However there is an
emergence of the husband stays home while the wife is the sole earner. Medved and Rawlings
(2011) assess a few different combinations of husband-wife work dynamics arrangements. They
found amongst the mend who decided to stay at home found the first few years of raising their
child and running their household unfamiliar. There were social dynamics they had to transverse
and explain as well as domestic duties. They found amongst families where both members
worked, they were no longer only dividing roles, but sharing and swapping roles. This
progressive approach also lead to the most emotional satisfaction within the family and for the
child.
Barclay (2009) makes notion of fatherly roles to be a liberal issue. She presents the idea
of men not only adhering to their traditional roles, but adding non-traditional roles. This is
achievable by the push of making paternal leave as mandatory as maternal leave. This allows the
male to alleviate the wife of stress and lead to a more productive household. This is also a
restructure of the workplace dynamic that leads to more equality between men and women.
Caution amongst left realist ideologies and against mens rights activist
Liberal ideologies can be in conflict with itself. There is an emergence of mens rights
activism that states to combat discrimination from feminism in aim of equality. Hacker (2013)

studies the division of parental legal rights in Israel. Men in Israel have found innovative
methods of separating a child from their mother using the legal system. The mens rights groups
have organized themselves into a larger lobby. They use internet and media to spread opinions.
They aim to shift parental roles away from the mother by taking away rights the mothers have
over their children. Because Israel is a religious state the feminist movement in the country
struggles to take the rights back. Although these are nontraditional shifts in the household power
dynamics they are not positive or beneficial shifts.
Left realism has been criticized for not being beneficial to the feminist movement.
Dragiewicz (2010) brings light to the efforts Left realism makes towards understanding
criminology amongst the family neglect the impact it has within the family. By ignoring gender
when assessing domestic crimes, men are empowered knowing their impacts does not change the
outcome of the punishment. They also argue left feminism gives way to Mens Rights
Movements to take power by marginalizing male consequences of crime.

Gaps in the literature

The literature is comprehensive in regards to family roles and how feminism is
implemented within the family. However the research does not explore the direct relation or
influence a father has on their son. The research only looks at family in praxis, but not opinions
held by participants. The literature I found was mostly qualitative and inductive.
I have the opportunity to fill in these gaps by addressing opinions stated by males and
comparing these statements to their fathers social and educational standing. I will look at
opinions on women holding political power and opinions on women in the workplace in relation
to the degree their father holds and their fathers socio-economic status.

HI: Paternal Socioeconomic standing is related to opinion on maternal employment status

HII: Paternal Socioeconomic standing is related to opinion on females with political power
HIII: Paternal education achieved is related to opinion on maternal employment status
HIV: Paternal education achieved is related to opinion on females with political power

Proposed Research Design

To test my hypothesis I will be utilizing the General Social Survey (or GSS) utilizing
quantitative research. The GSS is a nationally representative survey. It is a computer aided
survey interview where a surveyor is there to increase validity, however the surveyor lets the
computer administer the survey. The Survey has a high response rate making it a reliable survey.
The survey itself has a sample size of 1500.
I will filter the data to only represent male respondents. I will use two variables that
represent the father. The first one looks at the fathers socioeconomic status as a proprietary
index that gives a score from 0 100 where the (mean) average is 50. A higher SEI score
indicates the father was more affluent. The second variable I am using to represent the
respondents father looks at the highest degree the respondents father has obtained. The
responses available were less than high school, high school, junior college, bachelor degree, and
graduate. I will readjust the data given of level of education to less than college and college.
The statement I will use to look at the respondents opinion on females in the work place
is worded It is much better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home
and the woman takes care of the home and family, and asks to what degree the respondent
agrees. The statement I will use to look at the respondents opinion on females in politics is
worded Most men are better suited emotionally for politics than are most women. And again

asks to what degree the respondent agrees. I will adjust the variance to how much the respondent
agrees to both questions a simple affirmative or non-affirmative.
All test run will seek a level of significance within 95%
Results
Univariate:
To introduce the data I will first do a univariate analysis to look for frequencies, and
other statistics of averages. There were 891 samples when the survey was filtered to only include
male responses.
22% of the respondents who gave information of their fathers education had fathers who
went beyond high school to get an education. The other 78% stated their father did not go past
high school.
Fathers Degree
Less than College
College

554 78%
156 22%
710 100%

77% of people who responded to the stamen regarding females in politics found females
to be incapable to be in politics. The other 23% believed females were capable of being in
politics.
Females in Politics
Not
capable
Capable

434 76.67%
132 23.32%
566
100%

61% of the respondents who answered the statement regarding females in the workplace
did respond favorably to females working. 39% believed females working were detrimental to
their home life

.
Females employment
Should
work
Should
not
work

367 60.86

236 39.13
603 100%

Bivariate:
HI: Paternal Socioeconomic standing is related to opinion on maternal employment status
To answer if a respondents fathers socioeconomic status relates to the respondents
opinion on maternal employment I will administer a t-test. A t-test is a bivariate analysis that
compares a dichotomous variable with an interval. I will be able to see if those with positive
affirmations towards mothers working have affluent parents or not.

Sig = 0.055
R'S FATHER'S
SOCIOECONOMIC
INDEX

Mean

Std.
Deviation

Std.
Error
Mean

Should
work

290

51.084

19.6139

1.1518

Should
not work

194

47.598

19.4408

1.3958

Running this test I found there is no significant difference between the average father
socioeconomic index, and the respondents opinion on females in the workplace.

HII: Paternal Socioeconomic standing is related to opinion on females with political power
To answer if a respondents fathers socioeconomic status relates to the respondents
opinion on whether females are capable in politics or not I will again administer a T-test. . I will
be able to see if those with positive affirmations towards females in politics have affluent parents
or not.

Sig = 0.281
R'S FATHER'S
SOCIOECONOMIC
INDEX

Mean

Std.
Deviation

Std.
Error
Mean

Not
capable

353

50.498

19.7352

1.0504

Capable

101

48.106

19.3106

1.9215

Again running this test I found there is no significant difference between the average father
socioeconomic index, and the respondents opinion on females in politics.

HIII: Paternal education achieved is related to opinion on maternal employment status

To answer if the level of education the respondents fathers have achieved has an impact on the
respondents opinion on maternal employment I will run a chi square test. A Chi squared test is
another bivariate analysis that compares nominal variables to each other and seeks if there is a
difference from expected values. For this experiment I am testing to see if opinion towards
females working is dependent on the independent variable of fathers education.

Padegree

Sig - .003
FEFAMI

Less than college

Should
work

Should
not work

Total

Count

Some
college
or more

Total

217

79

296

Expected
Count

230.2

65.8

296.0

% within
Padegree

58.0%

73.8%

61.5%

Count

157

28

185

Expected
Count

143.8

41.2

185.0

% within
Padegree

42.0%

26.2%

38.5%

Count

374

107

481

Expected
Count

374.0

107.0

481.0

% within
Padegree

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

There was a significant difference found between how educated a respondents father is
and its relation to how positively one feels towards women working. Those with fathers who
went to college are more affirmative towards women working while those whose fathers did not
go to college did not think women should work.

HIV: Paternal education achieved is related to opinion on females with political power
To answer if the level of education the respondents fathers have achieved has an impact
on the respondents opinion on females in politics I will again run a chi square test. Here I am
trying to determine if the opinions on females in politics is dependent on the fathers education.

Padegree

Sig- 0.739
FEPOLI

Less than college

Not
capable

Capable

Total

Count

Some
college
or more

Total

271

80

351

Expected
Count

272.2

78.8

351.0

% within
Padegree

77.7%

79.2%

78.0%

Count

78

21

99

Expected
Count

76.8

22.2

99.0

% within
Padegree

22.3%

20.8%

22.0%

Count

349

101

450

Expected
Count

349.0

101.0

450.0

% within
Padegree

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

Here I found there is no significant impact on opinion toward females in politics due to
fathers level of education.

Multivariate:
Multivariate analysis is an analysis that involves more than two variables to test if a
significant finding is spurious. I will test my findings hypothesis III in where I found statistical
significance between opinions the respondents holds about women working, and the education
level achieved by their father, by also looking at the respondents income. To restate this I am
testing if opinions on women in the workplace is dependent on fathers attained education when
controlling for respondents income. To test this dichotomous dependent variable I will run a
logistic regression test.
95% Confidence
Interval for Exp(B)
FEFAMIa
Should
Intercept
work
Padegree

Std.
Error

Wald

df

Sig.

Exp(B)

Lower
Bound

-.715

.413

2.994

.084

.576

.261

4.883

income06

.031

.017

3.210

Upper
Bound

.027

1.779

1.067

2.965

.073

1.032

.997

1.068

Here I found no statistical significance in opinion given on women in the workplace

when controlling for the respondents income.

Conclusions
I sought out to see if having a strong and affluent father could result in sons showing
feminist tendencies. Yet the tests that I ran showed they generally had no impact on each other.
The only relation I found was respondents whos fathers had attained a college education were
more favorable to women in the workplace and those whos fathers did not go to college were
not in favor of mothers working. This statistical difference could be argued as a substantive
difference. The number of sons who are not in favor of women working is a large enough sample
to cause caution of the general mindset regarding equal rights amongst those influenced by the
less educated. Those who did not have a father who obtained a college degree are also a majority

of the population. GSS is a nationally representative survey, and because of its strong external
reliability it is a snapshot of the opinion held all over America.
That being said the data set I had to work with was limited in what questions it asked and
how it asked them. The questions may not have always been internally valid. As in the questions
asked about mothers in the workplace may receive a varying answer amongst the same
individual from before his wife has a child and after. Another limitation in how I processed the
results is that due to its proprietary nature, the fathers socioeconomic index is difficult to gauge
and quantify. If there was more information on how the variable was built then it would be
possible to find significance elsewhere by way of multivariate analysis.
Hopefully better questions will be asked in subsequent GSS administered. The questions
currently on the survey seemed leading towards aggressive responses for thoughts on women.
Further research could be done on the subject if one were to produce a survey strictly seeking
opinions on feminism, and social background. However for now it is tough to make any solid
assumptions based on the data produced through the GSS alone.

References
Barclay, Linda. Hypatia 28.1 (2013): 163-78. Web.
Dragiewicz, Molly. "A Left Realist Approach to Antifeminist Fathers' Rights Groups." Crime,
Law & Social Change 54.2 (2010): 197-212. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
<http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr
ue&db=ssf&AN=511529608&site=eds-live&scope=site>.
Hacker, Daphna. "Men's Groups as a New Challenge to the Israeli Feminist Movement: Lessons
from the Ongoing Gender War Over the Tender Years Presumption." Israel Studies
18.3 (2013): 29-40. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
<http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr
ue&db=a9h&AN=89902082&site=eds-live&scope=site>.
Levin, Lynn1,2. Michigan Quarterly Review 49.4 (2010): 552-58. Web.
Maher, Jennifer. "Something Else Besides a Father." Feminist Media Studies 14.5 (2014): 85367. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
<http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr
ue&db=a9h&AN=98697085&site=eds-live&scope=site>.
Medved, Caryn E.1, and William K.2 Rawlins. Women & Language 34.2 (2011): 9-39. Web.
Sugarman, Roy. "The Feminist Perspective: Searching the Cosmos for a Valid Voice." Mens
Sana Monographs 7.1 (2009): 97-109. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
<http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr
ue&db=a9h&AN=43387222&site=eds-live&scope=site>.