Feminists suggest that because of patriarchal ideology that exist in society those who are being subjected to unfair treatment will rarely be aware of it and challenge it. Males are seen as the dominant gender and this is the way society operates. Women will accept the higher status of men and consequently higher status and income jobs. This concept will be operationalised to see if the ideologies are what constrain women’s position.
Glendinning and Millar (1994) see poverty as the result of Gender socialization. Their research shows that women are disadvantaged in the labour market because they are seen as secondary workers. Their primary role is seen as domestic. Women’s role is associated with childbearing, looking after children and the house there for they are more likely to have part time jobs and experience vertical segregation. As women’s role is seen as domestic money is seen as little importance as it coincides with the fact that to be a good mother/ wife wealth is of little importance. Because of this attitude employees regard them as less important resulting in low- paid jobs.
Gender socialization is a key factor for the higher risk. Through the socializing institutions family and education it is emphasised that girl’s primary role should be domestic and caring. The habits and beliefs associated with these factors limit women’s opportunities in later life as they restrict women from reaching out beyond the household sphere. This supports the hypothesis as it shows because of family responsibility women less often achieve financial independence and are at a greater risk of poverty.
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Methodology: The sampling technique used will be random. This is because it will reach a wider target market and hence provide more representative data. Consequently it will add more validity and credibility to research.
The research method will be in the form of a questionnaire. It is the most appropriate to use as the questions will be fixed choice so the response can be easily analysed and correlations between variables examined. Also it will be less time consuming than interviews.
A questionnaire will allow the hypothesis to be tested by operationalising the concepts. For the concept “Gender socialization” questions such as how much housework was allocated to them compared to male siblings and what type of behaviour was encouraged or discouraged will be asked. From this it will be distinguishable if traditional roles are upheld. For Patriarchal ideology questions that explore domestic roles and responsibilities such as paid work and domestic tasks will be asked.
Stratified sampling will be used to obtain the population of women. Women from all aspects and areas of life will be included. This is so it can be seen if the socialization process is similar for women from all different characteristics of life. The technique will allow general trends to be analyzed but also how other aspects determine the risk of poverty.
As the data collected will be Quantitative this is a positivist approach. The majority of the questions will be closed as only basic details such as what sort of jobs they do, if they have any people that are dependant on are needed to operatinalise the concepts. The reliability of the results is more imperative than validity therefore it will be more appropriate to use closed questions which give quantitative data. However some open questions will be used.
The questionnaires will be mailed to the respondents. This will allow large quantities of data to be collected over a short period of time and will require little personal involvement therefore it is more efficient than hand delivering. The sample size will be 100 questionnaires, as it will ensure that if the response rate is low there is an acceptable set of results to analyze. To ensure a high level of reliability it will include on the questionnaire that it should be anonymous and that confidentiality will be guaranteed. Ethical issues will be considered in the questions so that they do not encroach on the participants’ personal lives.
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Potential problems: Time is a key issue. It may be difficult to find a representative sample. The sample would need to be narrowed down and targeted on one particular group (white, middleclass, married women) as this gets rid of variables and makes the research easier and less time consuming.
The validity of the data cannot be guaranteed. As the respondents will not know me, they may be reluctant to give personal information and so will not be entirely truthful. If information is given it may be exaggerated. Also the results will only be valid to a certain extent as there are other factors that make women’s risk higher. By using closed questions it will impose a tight framework on respondent as important issues may be neglected. The questionnaires could be followed up with interviews, which would then give qualitative data and allow the concepts to be better operationalised.
Although 100 questionnaires will be posted out the response rate may be low. This will make the sample less representative and make it harder to make reliable conclusions and generalisations. Even if the response rate is high the data cannot be guaranteed reliable as the questionnaires may be finished quickly with questions being interpreted in different ways. Respondents may not understand concepts such as Patriarchy.
Because I am researching the impact of gender socialization it would be beneficial if the population sample included male’s as well. The different answers between the genders could be compared to see how the different ways boys and girls have been socialized shape the risk of poverty.
Because a Feminist perspective was adopted this could lead to a theoretical problem of imposition. The questions asked could require the respondents to provide an answer to support the hypothesis that may not have been the case if a Feminist approach was not taken.
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