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Beliefs of leaders in education toward status of women

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Beliefs of leaders in education toward status of women

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Content BELIEFS OP LEADERS IN EDUCATION TOWARD
STATUS OFWKmmM
A Dissertation
Presented to
the Faculty of the School of Education
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
by
Belle K. McGauley
fey, 19k9
UMI Number: DP23988
All rights reserved
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This dissertation^ w ritten by
.......... BELLE-K^.iîCGÂULEY............
under the guidance of A..er_. F a cu lty Committee
on Studies, and approved by a ll its members, has
been presented to and accepted by the C o u n cil
on Graduate Study and Research, in p a rtia l f u l
fillm e n t of requirements fo r the degree of
D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y
eÀ
D ate June..2.%9-
Committee on Studies
n I i Q g I ..
Chairman
TABLE OP CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PART I
THE PROBLEM . , . . . , .
Introduction. ......
Statement of the problem.
Importance of the problem
Definition of terms used
Method of presenting findings
Organization of the following chapters
The beliefs of leaders in education .
Geographic area and belief. . . .
Age and belief........... .
Devel of education and belief . .
Level of work and liberal scores.
Political party preference and belief
Data from the personal section of the
questionnaire . ........... . . •
II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE...........
Studies dealing with the beliefs of
leaders in education. . . . . . .
Research studies having to do with
attitudes and beliefs toward women.
Summary ............. ...............
PACE
1
1
2
3
5
8
8
8
9
10
10
10
10
11
12
12
II4 -
25
Ill
( 3&AJP!r]3R P/LGKE:
III. METHOD OP IHYESTI0ATION. ........... 29
Scope* 29
Method of gathering data ............. 31
Letter addressed to leading educators. . . 31
Technique used ........... 33
Replies received, number and distribution* 33
Selective factors. . . . . . . . . . 33
Questionnaire construction ........ 35
Reasons for using the Kirkpatrick
questionnaire, modified. 39
Arrangement of propositions into
categories I 4I
Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . h-9
Validity ........... . 52
Explanation of scoring procedure......... 53
Limitations of the questionnaire survey. • 55
Summary . 57
PART II
]TV. THE QOIüSTICWniAIfüS AICD TTDS PiüRGEüTPAGE OF
AGHSEEÜÜSNT TO TEÜS PRtlPOSITICWKS IH IT. . . .
The questionnaire. . . . . . . . . . . 60
Replies received ............. 60
Distribution of liberal scores . ......... 6l
iv
CHAPTER PAGE
Prescription and comparison of
percentage of agreement responses
to separate propositions of the
questionnaire. . . . .. . .. . .. 65
Percentage of agreement according
to categories. 6?
Rank order coefficient of correla
tion between percentages of
agreement to the separate proposi
tions of the questionnaire ..».••• 8L } .
Category differences . . . . . . . 93
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
V. GEOGRAPHIC AREA AND BELIEFS OF
LEADING EDUCATORS ..................... 98
dumber and distribution of replies
within the different geographical
areas of the Gnlted States............. 98
Geographical area versus liberal score . . 99
Significant differences............... 99
A comparison of men* s and women * s
liberal scores for the five
geographical areas . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Summary. 106
V
CHAPTER PAGE
VI. jUHE jAHD BELIEF OF LEADING EDUCATORS............ IID
NTjuaber and distribution of total
scores according to age groups • • • • « 110
A comparison of total liberal
scores according to age groups • • • • • 111
Significant differences. . . . . . . . Ill
A comparison of women’s liberal
scores for the different age
groups 113
A comparison of men’s liberal
scores for the different age
groups......................... 118
Differences between men’s and
women’s mean liberal scores for
the age groups ................... H 8
Summary........... . 121
VII. YEARS OF EDUCATION AND BELIEFS OF
LEADING EDUCATORS............... 123
Number and distribution of total
replies according to years of
education attained by the
educators ............. 123
A comparison of total liberal scores
according to amount of education
attained . . . . . . . . . . . I2I 4.
Vi
CHAPTER PAGE
Significant differences....................... 126
A comparison of women’s liberal
scores according to amount of
education attained •••• ............. 126
A comparison of men’s liberal
scores according to amount of
education attained.. . ............... 131
A comparison of years of education
and liberal score of the men and
women within the same age groups .... 133
Summary. ............... • • • 13^
VIII. LEVEL OF WORK VERSUS LIBERAL SCORE pS. . . . 137
Number and distribution of replies .... 137
Mean, median, and quartlie scores
for the total group. . . . . . . . . 138
Significant differences................. . li|i)
Mean, median and quart!le scores
of the women’s responses . . . . . . . l l \ - 2
Mean, median and quart!le scores
of the men’s responses.................. llj-5
A comparison of the central tendency
scores of the women versus the meh . . . lIi-9
Summary. ........... I50
vii
CHAPTER PAGE
IX. POLITICAL PARTY PREFERENCE AHD SCORE ....
Number and distribution of replies . . . . l^li
A comparison of the mean, median and
quartile scores for the total group. . . 1514-
Significant differences, . # . . . . . l55
A comparison of the women*s mean,
median and quartile scores . . . . . . l5?
A comparison of the men’s mean,
median and quartile scores l59
A comparison of women’s versus
men’s central tendency scores. ..... I63
Summary ........... I6I 4 .
X. DATA PROM THE PERSONAL SECTION OF THE
QUESTIONNAIRE.............................. I66
Number a'hd distribution of married,
widowed, divorced, and single edu
cators replying to the questionnaire • . I66
Effect of married status on liberality
of score, women. . . . . . . . I66
Effect of marriige status on liberality
of score, men. ........ ......... 1^7
A comparison of men’s and women’s scores
according to marriage status ...... 169
viii
CHAPTER PAGE
Number and distribution of replies
to certain personal questions in
the questionnaire♦ 171
Summary........................... 17i | -
PART III
XI. SmiMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMIÆEimATIONS . . I78
Recapitulation of the problem. ...... 17Ô
Some general findings...................... 179
Geographic area and score. . . . . . . I80
Age and belief . . . . . . . . . . . I8I
Years of education and beliefs of
leading educators. . . . . . . . . . 182
Type of work versus liberality of
score* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Political party preference and
liberality of score........................ l8l^
Data from the personal section of
the questionnaire. ................... I86
Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . I88
Ambiguity in women’s role. ........ I88
Discrimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Inferiority. . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . 19^
BIBLIOGRAPHY............................ 199
APPENDIX ............................... 203
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE PAGE
I. States included in each of the five
geographic areas of the United States . , 30
II. The number of questionnaires received from
leading educators according to geograph
ical areas. 3h
III. Distribution of liberalism scores by sex and
for the total group ............. 6 l j .
IV. Percentage of agreement by sex and for the
total group in the order of items in the
questionnaire according to the amount of
agreement received by each proposition. . 666
V. Propositions ranked in the order of
percentage of agreement . . . . . . 69
VI, Propositions ranked in the order of
percentage of agreement for the
men educators . . . . . . . . . 70
VII. Propositions ranlced in the order of
percentage of agreement for the
women educators ................ 71
VIII. Coefficient of correlation betvfeen
percentages of agreement to the separ
ate propositions of the questionnaire . . 85
X
TABLE PAGE
IX# Differences in rank order between men
and women for items grouped by
liberal or conservative ••••••••• 92
X. Distribution of liberal scores for the
total educator group by geographic
areas .##..##.####.####. 100
XI# t-ratio table for significant differences
between geographic areas for total
scores# # . . # . # # . . . # . # . 101
XII# Distribution of liberal scores for the
men*s group by geographic area. • * # • • IOI4.
XIII. t-ratio table for significant differences
between geographic areas for men*s
scores# # . # # # . # # . # # # . #
XIV. Distribution of liberal scores for the
women’s group by geographic area# • • « • 107
XV. t-ratio table for significant differences
between geographic areas for women * s
scores# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # IO8
XVI. Distribution of liberal scores for the
total educator group by age • ......... 112
XVII. t-ratio table for significant differences
in age for total scores ##•###### lllf
XVIII. Distribution of liberal scores for the
women educator group by age ••#•#•# ll5
log
xi
TABiE PAGE
XIX* t-ratio table for significant differences
in age for women’s scores- 117
XX, Distribution of liberal scores for the
men educator group by age................ 119
XXI, t-ratio table for significant differences
in age for men’s scores . * ........... 120
XXXI, Distribution of liberal scores for the
total educator group by years of
education attained........................... 12^
XXIII* t-ratio table for significant differences
in years of education for total scores, , 127
XXIV, Distribution of liberal scores for the
women educator group by years of
education attained, 129
XXV, t-ratio table for significant differences
in years of education for women’s
scores, ......... ,,,,, 130
XXVI, Distribution of liberal scores for the
men educator group by years of
education at tained 132
XXVII, t-ratio table for significant differences
in years of education for men’s
scores............................................13^ 4 -
xiî
TABLE PAGE
XXVIII• distribution of liberal scores for the
total educator group by level of work . . 139
XXIX, t-ratio table for significant differences
between means of level of work
classifications for total scores . ♦ • . l Ii J L
XXX, distribution of liberal scores for the
women educator group by level of work
classifications for women’s scores. . , • l l t i l .
XXXI, t-ratio table for significant differences
between means of level of work
classifications for women’s scores. • , • Xl\S
XXXII, distribution of liberal scores for the
men educator group by level of work . . , ll»-6
XXXIII. t-ratio table for significant differences
between means of level of work
classifications for meht’ ^s scores, .... lI{-8
XXXIV, distribution of liberal scores for the
total educator group by political
party preference. . . . . . . . . .
XXXV, t-ratio table for significant differences
in political party preference for
total scores, l56
XXXVI, distribution of liberal scores for the
women educator group by political
party preference. ............. 15>0
xi i l
TABLE PAGE
XXXVII. t-ratio table for significant differences
in political party preference for
women * s,scores 160
XXXVIII, Distribution of liberal scores for the
men educator group by political
party preference. . . . . . . . . . . I61
XXXIX. t-ratio table for significant differences
in political party preference for
men* s scores. .. .. . .. . .. . .. . 162
XL. Marriage status of women educators
versus liberal score. . . . . . . .. . . I68
XLI. Marriage status of men educators
versus liberal score. ... . . . . . . . 170
XLII. Number and distribution, according to
sex, of responses to certain personal
questions of the questionnaire. ..... 1?5
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE PAGE
1. Distribution of total educator scores, , . , 62
2, Distribution of the eighty propositions of
the questionnaire according to the per
centage of educators accepting each
proposition............... 68
PART I
CmPTJER I
THE PROBLEM
Introduction, Prom the seclusion of early times, a
seclusion bor^ring upon subjugation, women have today emerged
into a position of relative equality with men. This emer
gence constitutes one of the most fundamental social trans
formations of modern times. Its comparative nev/ness, its
economic conflicts, its demands, the Inconsistencies it has
wrought in peoples * thinking have brought in their wake a
certain amount of cultural confusion to both sexes. The
entrance of women into business, professions and the arts, the
organization of women's clubs with their demands for equal
rights and equal pay, the increasing amount of research giving
scientific facts on the relative differences and similarities
between the sexes, all these^htegs-’have had a telling
effect in modifying traditional attitudes and beliefs. %is
effect has extended into all spheres of living and has modi
fied the system of social values and conduct, the domestic
affairs, the political^and laws and the economic outlook.
/L___
These changes are of such recent origin and of such
outstanding importance, that their acceptance is in a state
of flux; many people are confused and do not know what to
believe. Patriarchal attitudes still hold sway, vested
2
interest is strong in America, and traditionalism seems to
provide one bulwark against confusion.
Statement of the problem. It was the purpose of this
study to discover by means of the questionnaire technique
the prevailing beliefs of leaders in American education
toward various aspects of the equal status and rights of
women as compared with those of men, with particular refer
ence to the (l) economic, (2) domestic, (3) political-legal,
and (IjJ conduct and social fields.
1. What is the common core of beliefs among leaders
in education about this conflicting problem?
2. In what category, economic, domestic, political-
legal, or social and conduct status is there the
greatest amount of agreement?
3. How do the sexes compare in amount of agreement?
l i _ . How consistent are these beliefs?
5* lo what extent do such factors as political pre
ference , age, sex, education, and geographical
location affect belief?
6, Is there any indication that the beliefs of
educators* will be of assistance to youth in
adjusting.to its age and sex role? An attempt
has been made in this study to answer these and
similar questions.
3
Importance of the problem# Kirkpatrick has pointed
out that :
There is no sociological phenomenon more wide-spread
and more basic to all cultures than the process by
which one takes over the attitudes, habits and customs
of his fellows through interaction in primary groups,I
People universally tend to reflect the majority opinion of the
group ivith which they are identified, ^and in hand with this
phenomenon goes the process of change from generation to
generation,
liinton has written:
In general the prestige order of the age group is
clearly defined for each sex but the ranking of particular
categories in one sex series relative to those in the
other is difficult to establish. In strongly patriarchal
societies any male, even an infant, may be said to rank
any female. In even the more matriarchal societies, on
the other hand, I have been imable to find any case in
which any female is presumed to rank any male,^
Kitay, working with a group of junior college students,
found that:
A low prestige group tends to adopt prevailing views
originated by a high prestige group even when they are
uncomplimentary to itself.
He went on to point out that women accepted the tradi
tional attitudes which were largely determined by men "often
for definite reasons" toward themselves, though to a lesser
T Clifford Kirkpatrick and S, Stone, "Attitude Measure
ment and the Comparison of Generations," Journal of Ap-plied
Psychology. XIX: $6l|.-82, 1935*
2 Ralph Linton, "Age and Sex Categories," American
Socloi. Review, VII: $89-603, 19^12•
Ij-
extent, and these attitudes were, on the whole uncomplimen
tary. He concluded that:
Unfavorable attitudes often work counter to the best
interests of that group with respect to the possibili
ties of improvement of its status and the maintenance of
the self-respect of its members.3
Seward pointed out that children were not given a
clear conception of the sex role they were expected to .play,
that what was acceptable behavior today might be frowned
on tomorrow. She believes that the failure to differentiate
between the biological function and the social role has added
to "the cultural confusion and helped to entrench the sub
ordination of women.
The resulting resentment has been responsible for
the repudiation of femininity by many women in all its
aspects, with disastrous effects on their relationships
with men as well as on their ovm fulfillment as women.M-,
^ /
Today the same education is meted out to both women ^
and men in America, and with it goes the implication that
there are parallel opportunities for personal satisfaction
and advancement. The facts do not bear this out, and the
result is confusion and frustration for one half the popula
tion with its carry-over to the other half. Personal adjust
ment is dependent on group relationships, but it becomes
3 Philip M, Kit ay, Comparison of the Sexes in Their
Attitudes and Beliefs About Women, A Study of Prestige Groups,"
Sociometrv. Ill: 39p-lj.07, 19l|-0.
h - Ge or gene H, Seward, Sex and the Social Order. Hevf
York: McGraw-Hill, 191^.6, 193.
5
Increasingly difficult to adjust to any relationship which
is not clearly defined, the outlines of which are blurred by
intergroup conflicts, inconsistencies and ignorance,
J
This survey has been made in the hope that the be
liefs of a wide s ampling of American leaders in education
might help to clarify certain issues sfnich are basic in re
lation to some of these unsolved cultural and social problems.
Fundamentally these issues are few, and boil down to a
question of attitude toward freedom, individual rights, and
respect for the scientific method on the one hand, and tra
ditional attitudes of dominance, prestige and authority on
the other. At the least, it is expected that the establish
ment of the consensus of prevailing belief may serve as an
index of how"educational leaders are influencing their stu
dents .
Definition of terms used,
1, Belief. Webster's Dictionary defines a belief as:
A state or habit of mind in which trust, confidence or
reliance is placed in some person or thing. Conviction
or feeling of the truth of some proposition or the reality
of some being or phenomenon, especially when such convic
tion comes after the examination of the grounds for
accepting it as true or real
^ William A, Neason, (Ed.) Webster's New Antemational
Dictionary. Springfield: Merriam, ipTjb,
6
Warren’s definition is:
Acceptance of a principle, doctrine, statement, etc.,
trust, confidence, faith on the basis of evidence which
is assumed to .be adequate...
Kirkpatrick stated that: "An opinion or belief, in
accordance with current usage, may be regarded as the verbal
expression of an attitude."?
2. Leaders in education. All educator respondents
were those whose names had been included in the volume of that
name published by Cattell in IpliJ..^ One difficulty exper
ienced here was the fact that the edition was, at the time^
six years old, and an undetermined number of educators had
either moved and could not be contacted, or had died since
its publication. This fact was brought out by the return
of approximately fifty questionnaires with notes to this
effect. It was impossible to find out the number not returned
for the same or similar reasons. Since, for comparative
purposes, it was desirable to have an approximately equal
number of women and men, and since the actual ratio was about
one to five, every second woman’s and every seventh man’s
name was used. An effort vms made to keep the maximum age
^ Howard C. Warren, (Ed.) Dictionary of Psychology.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 193Û-
? Clifford Kirkpatrick, "Content of a Scale for
Measuring Attitudes Toward Feminism," Sociol. and Soc.
Research. XX: ^12-26, 1936.
8 J. McKeen Cattell, Jacques Cattell, and E. E . Ross,
Leaders in Education. Hev/ Kork: Science Press, 19i|-l.
7
at sixty-five, on the assumption that the educator would
still be active and more easily accessible at that and,
earlier ages.
These "leaders" included not only educators as such,
but social workers, research workers, psychologists, min
isters, health nurses, government employees, a sprinkling of
doctors, and others too numerous to mention. The "educators"
proper included elementary, secondary, college and university
teachers, as well as administrators, supervisors and special
appointees.
3. Liberal. Webster's defines the adjective "liberal"
as coming from the L^tin word "liber" meaning "free", the
basic idea being "to grow up".
hot narrow or contracted in mind; broad minded; having
a tendency toward democratic or republican, as disting
uished . from monarchical or aristocratic; suggests freedom from
prejudice or narrowness.^
I j . . Conservative. According to Webster conservative
means "tending or disposed to maintain existing institutions
or views; opposed to change or innovation.
S. Pro. Is used to denote for; in favor of; ad
herent to; partisan of; as in pro-German, pro-Catholicism,
pro-slav ery.
9 heilson, pp,. cit. . i1l2Ll.
TO Ibid.. ^68.
• ‘ 'bid.. 1970.
8
6 . £gn. Against; in opposition; on the negative
side; the antithesis of ^*pro'% and usually used in connection
with it.12
Method of nresenting, ■ findings . Descriptive and
comparative analyses were made by means of the statistical
method. Rank order correlation coefficients were computed
according to the approval of statements by the various groups.
Tables and graphs were used, the former to show means, med
ians, first and third quartiles and standard deviations, the
latter to show percentages of responses to separate items
and categories of related items.
As some thousands of computations had to be made, the
above procedure served to clarify the findings and did away
with a long and laborious presentation of figures,
I
Organization of the following chanters. The study
is divided into three parts. The first part includes
Chapters I, II, and III, which give a somewhat detailed
statement of the problem and indicate the method of research
to be used, review the related literature in the field, and
discuss the technique to be used for obtaining the required
information.
Part II is the heart of the investigation and includes
the following seven chapters :
The beliefs of leaders in education. Ojxapter IV
12 IbidT. $66.
9
discusses the overall findings from the country as a whole
on the beliefs of leading educators toward the question of
/
equal rights status, ^t shows the total score distribution‘ s
first of the men, then the women, then of both together, as
well as giving tests for significant differences. The t otal
men and women percentage of agreement to the different items
of the test are presented as well as the data for each ses
separately, first in the order in which the items are
placed in the questionnaire and then in the order of greatest
amount of agreement per item. A, rank order coefficient of
correlation according to agreement on the different items
has been computed. The percentage of agreement on each item
according to category has been shown and a pertinent compar
ison made between the liberal and conservative responses to
the same item. Comments made by educators have been included
where they appeared to shed light on the subject in question,
or where they were representative of the sentiment of a
number of respondents.
G-eographic area andbelief. Chapter V presents a
comparison of scores from the five geographic areas, as
listed by the Regional Accrediting Associations,showing
the mean and individual liberal scores for each category,
for total educators, and then for men and women educators
separately.
10
-A-Re and belief. Chapter VI enumerates the distrib
ution of replies relative to mean belief and age, and
gives a percentage comparison of age groups and beliefs,
total educators first followed by a breakdown into men and
women educators.
Level of education and belief. Chapter VII deals
with the number, distribution and comparison of mean
scores of the total educator group, and of the men and wo
men educators separately, according to the level of education
received. A comparison of the percentage of equal rights scores
in the different categories follows.
Level of work and liberal s cores. Chapter VIII
summarizes the number and distribution of replies rela
tive to level of work, that is, elementary, secondary or
university, superintendents, supervisors and miscellaneous,
and makes a comparison of mean, median, and quartile liberal
scores of the various groups. It also presents a comparison
of men*s and women* s scores.
Political party preference and b elief. Chapter IX
contains a discussion of political party preference and
belief regarding the equal rights status. It treats the
distribution and number of replies, compares the liberal
central tendency scores of the total educators, and of the
11
men and women educators with party preference, and makes
a comparison of the two.
It was intended that Chapter X should discuss church
preference and belief of the leading educators, but such a
large majority were Protestants that comparisons were not
possible. Only a handful of Catholics, Je\¥S, miscellaneous
and "no preference" replied, too few to give a representative
sampling, therefore this section was eliminated.
Data from the personal section of the questionnaire.
Chapter X discusses the numbers and distribution of married,
widowed, divorced and single educators replying. An effort
was made to discover what effect, if any, married status
had on liberality of response, first among the women educa
tors and then among the men.
Part III, Chapter XI, consists of a summary of the
methodology and findings of the entire project,an interpre
tation of them from the standpoint of freedom, individual
rights and respect for the scientific method,and suggests
a number of educational implications which seem to follow
inevitably along the educational continuum.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The literature dealt with in this chapter fell
logically under two headings :
4 1. Studies dealing with the attitudes and beliefs
of Amerlead leaders in education, and
^2, Research studies having to do with attitudes and
beliefs regarding the place and status of women.
Studies dealing; with the beliefs of leaders in
education. One of the first surveys made in this field was
by Manly Harper^S in 192?. According to himself, he :
studied in American educators the status of
certain fundamental social beliefs and attitudes as
included in the trait conservatism-liberalism-
radicalism...
in an effort to :
develop a conveniently practical scale for further
use in the measurement and study of this trait in
relation to some of, the more urgent aspects of our
unsolved problems .^4-
The method used in Harper’s study and the present
one is similar in that they were both questionnaire studies
seeking to discover the facts about opinions or beliefs of
Manly H, Harper, Social Beliefs and Attitudes
of American Educators. New ^ork: Teachers’ College,
Columbia. University, 1927.
' ■ Ibid.. 2,
13
American educators. They differ in almost every other
respect, that is, in the purpose, test used, method of
analyzing findings, and educator groups sampled. Harper's
sampling was of American educators, many of whom were in- the
elementary field. The present study is concerned with a
sampling of leaders in education in all fields.
The second study to appear in this area was one by
Arnett^^ in which he sought to analyze the social beliefs
and attitudes of school board members by means of the
Harper scale. Once again the purpose and intent were
different from those of the present study, though the
methods of presenting the findings were somewhat similar.
Three further studies were made by means of the
Harper technique, sometimes supplemented by other instru
ments, to discover facts about the social beliefs and
attitudes of certain groups of American educators. One
was by Petersonl^ in 1933> on the philosophies of education
current in the preparation of teachers in the United States,
another by Bairl? in 193lfj on the social understandings
13 Claude E. Arnett, Social Beliefs and Attitudes of
American School Board Members. Kansas : Emporia Gazette Press, 1932.
16 Francis E. Peterson, Philosophies of Education
Current in the Preparation of Teachers in the United States.
New ^ork: Teacher's College, Columbia University, 1933.
Frederick H, Bair, The Social Underslandings of the
Superintendent of Schools. New York : Teacher's College,
Columbia University, 193Î - ! - *
l i j .
of the superintendent of schools, supplemented by personal
facts about the lives and accomplishments of these men, and
outlining their recommendations about certain procedures.
A third was made also in 193^ ! - by Wardl^ on the philosophies of
administration current in the deanship of the liberal arts
colleges. The similarities between these studies and the
present one lie in the use of the questionnaire technique,
in the survey of samplings of American educators as to cer- ■
tain attitudes and beliefs,and in some of the methods used
in the statistical analyses of findings.
Research studies having to do with attitudes and
beliefs toward women. This field is comparatively new,
so although there are thousands of studies on attitudes and
beliefs in general, there are relatively few on attitudes
and beliefs toward women or the status of the sexes.
Kit ay T9 in Ipli-O took as his hypothesis the well-
known social psychological fact that "low prestige groups
tend to follow high prestige groups even with respect to
opinions of themselves,"^0 He proposed to test this out by
lb Merle Scott Ward, Philosophies of Administration
Current in the Deanship of the Libers^l Arts College. New
York : Teacher * s . College, Columbia Univers! t ^ 193q- *
Philip M. Kitay, "A Comparison of the Sexes in
Their Attitudes and Beliefs About Women, A Study of Prestige
Groups," Sociometrv. Ill: 399-^-07, 19l|D,
20 Ibid.. 399.
Ig
measuring the extent to which there was agreement in the
opinions of a men * s and a women * s group toward women. He
explained in part:
The traditional attitudes toward women have been
very largely determined by men. Some of the views
about women have probably been fostered by men for
definite reasons. The propagation of the belief that
women were inferior creatures who could not perform
any of the world's important work was an effective
way to keep women from competing with men. Apparently
women eventually came to believe that their inferiority
was a fact.^l
He constructed an attitude test of ninety statements
dealing with the value of women to society, their attributes,
rights and proper sphere of work, in order to measure the
f
women’s (low prestige group) and the men’s (high prestige
group) attitudes toward v/omen. He felt that if their attitude
patterns and scores were the same, one could conclude that
the women’s group had adopted the prevailing or male
attitude. If they were not the same, then the difference
In their scores and patterns would give a measure of the
extent to whi ch the women resisted the attitudes of male
origin.
The test was given to seventy-one first and second
year junior college students, .and Kitay’s findings were
summarized in the statement that "in this study the sexes
show a striking agreement," He arrived at the conclusion
"ST^lT oc . cit. ,
16
that :
a low prestige group does tend to adopt prevailing
views originated by a high prestige group even when
they are uncomplimentary to itself, but to a lesser
extent than does the outside group.
Kit ay concluded his study v/itii this observation;
The- existence .of attitudes unfavorable to one * s own
group is important because they work counter to the
best interests of that group with respect to the possi
bilities for improvement of its status and the main
tenance of the s elf-respect of its members.-3
Patrick, 2b- i ^ 1 pl|.l, conducted an investigation, the
aim of which was to study attitudes concerning women execu
tives in responsible government positions. Three hundred
questionnaires were sent to women in executive positions of the
government to obtain information about their personal lives,
and to find out how these facts compared with their attitudes
and opinions about women office-holders in general. Ques
tionnaires were also sent to non-prof es s ional women and
men executives to determine their attitudes toward women
executives.
The questionnaire was composed of fifty items
divided into two parts, one dealing with personal habits,
Ibid'. ' . h ,03.
23 Ibid.. l|_Og.
2^ Catharine Patrick, "Attitudes About Women Execu
tives in Government Positions," Journal of Social Psychology.
XIX, 3-31] . , 19l | l | . .
17
and one with attitudes and b eliefs about women executives.
The latter half dealt with certain features of woman * s
emotional nature and her executive qualifications, such as
political outlook, suggestibility, leadership capacity,
ideals, sense of humor and ambition, as well as,opinions
on the relationship of home and career.
The findings were similar to those of Kitay in that
a certain stereotyped picture of the woman office-holder
was found to be shared alike by housewives, men executives,
and even the women executives themselves, which many times
conflicted with what they knew of themselves and of their
own personal experiences. Contrary to general belief, these
women had received the cooperation and support of women's
organisations both before and after obtaining office. If
they were married the years of marriage and the number of
children averaged about the same as those of the non-pro
fessional vfoman of the same age and ed_ucation. These facts,
as well as their own assertions, indicated that their
professions had not interfered with their marriages or the
management of their homes, On the other hand, the fact
that the proportion of re-election was approximately the
same for vromen as for men indicated that the care of home
and children had not interfered with efficiency on the job.
In connection with the latter Patrick pointed out that this
measure of efficiency showed that a large discrepancy
18
existed betv/een the unfavorable attitudes about the woman ex
ecutive and her actual qualifications.
In her conclusions she continued:
Personal data and self-ratings show that these
women have the training and experience, political
outlook, executive ability, and emotional and temper- •
amenta1 traits which are advantageous to the success
ful executive.
The largest handicap which these women have encount
ered in their careers was prejudice against women
office-holders, although it did not always operate.
If these attitudes, which hinder the careers of
feminine office-holders, are to be removed it is
necessary to educate not only the non-professional
women and men executives, but also the women execu
tives themselves.^3
Williams, in lÇli.6, studying the attitude of
middle-class women to women doctors found that, in general,
women preferred the male doctor. The woman doctor’s status
was comparable to that of a man doctor among persons of a
different faith. An experienced woman doctor was preferred
only to a very young male doctor and to a negro doctor.
Bryan and Boring^? found that women psychologists
^ ^bld.. 33.
Josephine J. Williams, "Patients and Prejudice,
Lay Attitudes Toward Women Physicians," American Jour. Sociol..
LI: 283-287, IPW.
^7 Alice Bryan and Edwin G. Boring, "Women in
American Psychology: Statistics from the OPP Questionnaire,"
Amer. Psycholoaist. I: 71-79, 19l|.6.
19
got smaller salaries than did men, A Ph. D . degree to a
man, in 19l | l i , was worth $1,000, to a woman $700. A salary
of $3,1|.^0. was exceeded by sixty^five per cent of the men and
twenty-nine per cent of the women, $10,000 or more by forty^
four men and only three women. They found that the
complaint of women regarding discrimination was based on
inferior monetary compensation status, rather than on the
inferior nature of their jobs,
Komarovsky,^® in ipli.6, reported a study on the
nature of incompatible sex roles imposed by society on
college women. There were confusing contradictions, for
example, the future goals; husbands and/or careers were
mutually exclusive in their requirements. The assets of the
one in the American culture system were the liabilities of
the other. On the one hand the feminine roles of glamour
girl, young lady, home girl and so forth, as well as pro
per attitudes towards men, family, work, love and career
were stressed, together with certain personality traits,
that is, "not as dominant or aggressive as men" or "more
emotional, sympathetic," etc; on the other the more modern
role of preparation for a cs.reer, which partly obliterated
the differentiation in sex since it was in a sense no sex
^5 Mirra Komarovsky, "Cultural Contradictions and
Sex Roles," Amer. J our. Sociol.. LIT; I8I1-I89, 19l { - 6.
20
role at all,
Training is skewed toward one, at one age, toward
the other at another age, toward one at home, the
other at school, and one way or another or both in
society, depending on the nature of the group,^9
The impact of these contradictions on the growing student*s
mind was bound to result in confusion and insecurity, if not
in neuroticism,
Kirkpatrick, on beginning his well-known studies on
attitudes toward feminism, made in explanation and justifi
cation of his work this assumption:
It is assumed that feminist issues contribute sig
nificantly to cultural confusion, (and) to ambiguity
in the roles of modern w o m e n . 30
In an effort to discover wherein this confusion and ambi
guity lay he studied the minutes of eighty women * s organi
zations, dating back to 1900, He then compiled a list of
forty outstanding issues which seemed to include all the
controversial questions covering four categories: Economic,
domestic, political-legal and social and conduct, This list
included issues derived from the literature of the field as
well as from the official minutes. He next made up a bellef-
pattern scale composed of eighty items, two propositions
^‘ 9 Ibid.. l8lp-88.
30 Clifford Kirkpatrick, "Content of a Scale for
Measuring Attitudes Toward Feminism," Sociol. and Soc. Res,,
XX: $12-26, 1936.
21
on each issue, one pro and one con, by means of v/hich he
studied differences in belief between"male and female college
students, and between feminist and anti-feminist groups.
He hoped too that the scale might be usefully applied to the
study of such problems as family disorganization, and
marital differences.
The results showed cultural confusion and sex
antagonism reflected in the inconsistencies expressed by
students, especially men students, v/ith respect to various
issues on the feminist scale. As a result of his work
Kirkpatrick was .led to believe tha.t sex difference in
attitude might be increasing, and suggested that a wider
acceptance of the partner role would help to resolve discord
betv/een the sexes.31 /
/
Kingsbury, 32 doing some research work for the
United States Department of Labor on economic status, found
that about one-third of the 8,796 university women re
porting had met with discrimination. The causes were;
(l) sex, sixty_four per cent, (2) marital status, seventeen ^
per cent, (3) youth, thirteen per cent, (LjJ old age, six
per cent. There were six types of discrimination because
of sex reported:
3^ Ibid.. 512-26.
32 Susan M. Kingsbury, "Economic Status of University
Women in the U.S.A.,“ Bull. of the Women * s Bureau. No, 1?0,
Washington: U.S. Dept, of Labor, 1939,
22
Per cent
1. Small beginning salary 26
2. Refusal of a job 22
3.
Reduction in salary or demotion
in duties 21
ll-
Restriction in promotion
19
5.
Loss of a job
7
6. Other difficulties
5
Total 100
One half of those married reported discrimination for that
reason:
In sixty per cent of the cases it meant refusal
of a job or loss of_a job, that is, no salary, rather
than lower s a l a r y .
Lefever's survey, on the status of the married
teacher, found that the "question of the employment of
married women teachers |jva^ an unsettled, or unsolved,
problem. She concluded :
It is evident...that economic and other factors
not connected with classroom efficiency help to
determine much of the present ouinion.35
Deegan, according to Seward,36 realizing that
33 IbidT. !f8.
3^ Ruth B. Lefever, The Status of. the Married Women
Teachers in the Elementary Schools of Los Angeles County.
U.8.G. Thesis, M.A., 99, 1930.
3^ Log. cit.
3^ G-eorgene H, Seward, "Sex Roles in Postwar Planning,"
I our. S'oG. Psychol., XIX, 163-8$, 19l ! l { . .
23
cultural values and attitudes are reflected in literature,
undertook to make a study of single y/omen in selected
American novels, covering the past hundred years. She
discovered that the general picture y/as one of devaluation.
Of 179 single women, only 20 were major characters. Of
these only seven did not marry, and they were pictured as
unhappy, disagreeable, unattractive or pitiful. The
remaining l59 single women were pictured as minor, self-
effacing, and humble characters, in no instance representing
the comparatively happy and adjusted single woman of today
whose life could be considered a success. Oeegan pointed
to the need for further study, and adjustment of the social
attitude.
Seward37 found evidences of cultural conflict in
a study of the attitudes of college women toward t heir
role in post-war society.
The greater equality and independence endorsed for
the single woman contrasted sharply with a reactionary
adherence to the tradition of socioeconomic parasitism
for the married vroman, A sudden change in role of this
kind is fraught with risk of emotional conflict for the
individual. Having enjoyed the same educational oppor
tunities and having been motivated by the same vocational
goals, the girl who marries finds herself confronted
with a reversal of values. She i(^expected to turn her
back on the world of achievement and to concentrate her
energies on domestic activities for which she has had
little or no previous training and in which she may or
37 G-eorgene H. Sey/ard, Sex and the Social Order.
Ne\ 7 ^ork : McGraw-Hill_, lQlj.6.
2l|.
may not have any interest.38
As a result the girl is throvm into a state of emotional
and cultural confusion.
Her conflict was often expressed by a desire to
reject the feminine social role, as she faces the
post-war world. At the same time she was as eager to
embrace the feminine biological role as those wishing
to maintain women * s status quo. Among this group of
healthy ^oung women there was no evidence of "penis
envy, Ihey did not wish to exchange places with men.
They wanted to fulfill themselves as women and at the
same time to express their abilities in the world of
achievement, 39
Seward emphasized the fact that this conflict was of
social rather than biological origin. She felt that it was
a symptom of the confusion that , results from the change
over from an autocratic to a democratic pattern of sex
roles. It affects men as well as women in that, in the
American culture, the man is expected to be the provider,
and he must compete with women as well as with men. Hé
becomes preoccupied with success to the exclusion of the
home, therefore :
he tends to glorify the home and to project upon
women his own frustrated desire for the softer
values of life.HO
The solution seemed to be in a reformulation of sex roles,
% i d .\ 2ij,7-k8.
39 Ibid,, 2I1.8,
Loc, cit.
25
a more complete sharing of duties and responsibilities
both Inside and outside of the home. To accomplish
this, educational institutions from the nursery school
on would have to cooperate In training'children to "assume
their social sex roles," Both boys and girls would be
trained in parenthood, as well as along mathematical and
mechanical lines. They would have a continuous experience
of working and playing together, so as to be prepared to
take the same roles In adult life,
Summary. Two types of research have been reviewed
»
in this chapter^ studies having to do with the beliefs and
attitudes of various classes of educators, and those having
to do with the beliefs and attitudes toward the status of
women, In the former category j-iere placed the studies of
Harper on social beliefs and attitudes of school teachers,
Arnett on social beliefs and attitudes of school board
members, Peterson on the philosophies of education current
in the preparation of teachers, Bair on the social understandings
of the superintendent of schools, and the last by Ward on
the philosophies of administration current In the deanship
of the liberal arts colleges.
In the status of women category were placed the
studies of Hitay, Patrick, Williams, Bryan and Boring,
Komarovsky, Kirkpatrick, Kingsbury, Lefever, Deegan and
Seward,
26
Kitay concluded that a low prestige group tended
to adopt prevailing views originated by a high prestige
group even when they were uncomplimentary to itself, though
to a lesser extent,
Patrick, in a study of women executives in responsi
ble government positions, found that housewives, male
executives and even the women executives themselves had a
certain stereotyped picture of the female office-holder
which many times conflicted with what they knew of them
selves and of their ovm personal experiences. Tests' of
efficiency showed a large discrepancy between the unfavorable
attitudes about women executives and their actual qualifica
tions ,
Williams, working with a group of middle-class women,
discovered that they preferred an experienced woman doctor
only to a very young man doctor or to a negro doctor,
Bryan and Boring/s study showed that definite finan
cial advantages accrued to men psychologists as compared with
women doing comparable work.
Komarovsky discussed the nature of Incompatible sex
roles imposed by society on college women and pointed out
that they could only result in confusion and insecurity,
if not in neuroticism,
Kirkpatrick assumed that feminine issues contributed
significantly, to cultural confusion and to ambiguity in the
27
roles of modern women. His study showed cultural confusion
and sex antagonism reflected in the inconsistencies expressed
by students j especially men, regarding various issues. It
appeared to him that a wider acceptance of the partner
role would help to resolve the discord between the sexes.
Kingsburystudy dealt with the economic status
of university women. About one third of the 8,796 women"
replying had met with discrimination, 61| . per cent on
account of sex, 17 per cent on account of marital status,
13 per cent on account of youth and 6 per cent on account
of old age,
Lefever, on surveying the status of the married
woman teacher in the elementary schools of Los Angeles
County, concluded that economic and other factors not
connected with classroom efficiency helped to determine
much of the present opinion regarding their employment,
Deegan, on concluding a survey of the single woman
in American literature over the past hundred years, felt
that the general picture was one of devaluation, and was
in no sense a true picture of the place of the single woman
in society,
Seward found evidences of cultural conflict in a
study of the attitudes of college women toward their role
in post-war society. The emphasis was placed on the necessity
for a clarification of the woman * s social role as compared
28
with the biological one, and for a more complete sharing
by men and women of duties and responsibilities both
in and outside the home.
The purpose of reviewing the first category, that is
the surveys made of various classes of educators,w as to
give an idea of what groups of educators had been sampled,
what they had been questioned about, and the methodology
used. The reason for reviewing the second group of studies
was to prepare a foundation of scientific data which could
be used as a basis for an evaluation of, and a comparison
with, the beliefs of leading educators, as discovered
through this study.
CHAPTER III
METHOD OF INVESTIGATION
Scope. This study was planned on a nation wide
basis as were those of Harper, Amett, and Bair raentionned
in the previous chapter. It was anticipated that a sampling
of responses from leading educators from the five geographic
areas. Table I, of the United States would be included
among the replies. These areas were chosen from the United
States Office of Education list for accredited higher
institutions, and were as follows :
1. Middle States
2. New Eng1and
3* Uorth 0entrai
I j - . Western
5. Southern
It was anticipated that returns would be received
from almost all of the forty-eight states. Actually,
completed questionnaires were received from each of the
forty-eight states included in the various geogrphic areas.
As originally'planned, this investigation was
intended to include comparisons of the beliefs of leading
educators on the three levels, elementary, secondary and
university. However, the problem of sampling presented
difficulties; an insufficient number of elementary educators.
30
TABLE I
STATES INCLUDED IN EACH OF THE FIVE GEOGRAPHIC AREAS OF
THE UNITED STATES'^
I. Middle States
1. New Mexico
m. North Dakota
a.
Delaware n. Ohio
b. Maryland
o. Oklahoma
d. New Jersey
p.
South Dakota
d. New York
q.
West Virginia
e. Pennsylvania r. Wisconsin
s. Wyoming
New England IV, Western
a. Connecticut a. California
b. Maine b. Idaho
c. Massachusetts c. Montana
d. New Hampshire d. Nevada
e. Rhode Island e. Oregon
f.
Vermont f*. Utah
g.
Washington
Ill, North Central V, Southern
a. Arizona a, Alabama
b. Arkansas b. Florida
c. Colorado c. Georgia
d. Illinois d. Kentucky
e, Indiana e. Louisiana
f.
Iowa f.
Mississippi
g.
Kansas
g •
North Carolina
h. Michigan h. South Carolina
i.
Minnesota i.
Tennessee
j .
Missouri
J •
Texas
k. Nebraska k.
Virginia
Ella B, Ratcliffe, Accredited Hipiher Institutions
Washington:
V r * - ' -i- Y ---V . k * V ^ ^ V # • * - - k . > , - • w V — ---
U.S. Gov * t Printing Office, IÇkSy 92.
31
in particular, were Included among the leading educators,
and to have selected their names elsewhere would have
raised the question as to whether they should have been
included among the leaders in education, as such. Consequently,
the study was enlarged to include total liberal scores for the
different geographic areas, for the different age groups,
for various levels of education and of work, and for politi
cal party preferences, A comparison was made between men * s
and women * s scores to discover any significant differences
between the two. Data from the personal section of the
questionnaire were examined for pertinent information.
Method of gathering data. Three thousand copies /
of a modified Kirkpatrick questionnaire for measuring
beliefs toward the status of women were sent to a sampling
of leading educators whose names were selected from Cattell ’ s^î- 1
collection of leaders in education. It was considered de
sirable to contact a fairly equal number of women and men
for comparative purposes, and as the names listed were in
the approximate ratio of three to fourteen, the names of
every woman under sixty-five and of every sixth man under
sixty-five v/ere selected with the exception of those knov/n
to have died.
Letter addressed to leading educators. In order
J. Mekeen Cattell, Jacques Gattell and E. E.
Ross, Leaders in Education. New York: Science Press, ipljl-,
32
to explain the purpose of the investigation and to ask
their cooperation, the folloY/ing letter was sent to three
thousand leading educators In the five areas :
Return Address,
Los Angeles, Gal.
May 30, 19J j ,7
Mr. John Doe,
llii.6 Arbutus St.,
Spokane, Wa sh,
Dear Mr, Doe:
The projected study is seeking to discover
the prevailing beliefs of leaders in education about certain
aspects of the economic, domestic, political-legal and
conduct and social status of women in modern society.
It is felt that such a study will do much to
focus, and perhaps help to clarify the cultural confusion
that exists in education and in society as a whole today,
owing to the diverse and contradictory beliefs regarding
women.
The method I am using is, of necessity, the
questionnaire, a copy of which I am enclosing for your
inspection and completion.
Your cooperation, suggestions and advice are
necessary for the completion of this study, and I can assure
you that they will be greatly appreciated,
I am only too conscious of the fact that, in
your position, time is valuable,and would hesitate to
infringe upon it if it were possible to obtain the information
in any other way,
^hanking you in anticipation, and once again
assuring you of my appreciation, I am
Sincerely yours.
Belle McG-auley
33
Technique used. The questionnaire study was con
sidered thebest method available. Permission was obtained
from Clifford Kirkpatrick of the University of Minnesota
to modify his scale and to delete or add questions on the'
personal data sheet as was deemed necessary for the study.
Replies received, number and distribution. By the
date set for beginning the statistical analyses, 926 replies
had been received, Lt.76 from women educators and from
men. Approximately another 80 had been returned with notes
to the effect that the educator was away for the summer
vacation, had moved to an unknown address, was too busy to
reply, had died, was no longer an educator, and so forth.
Some 23 were received too late to be included in the analyses
and 7 were discarded as not being sufficiently completed to
be usable. Every state in the union was represented, although
no returns were received from the women of Delaware or the
men of Arizona. The distribution of these replies, classi
fied according to geographical areas is shovm. in Table II.
It was evident that all five geographical areas v/ere repre
sented, that the returns were well distributed, and that they
represented these areas fairly well. It therefore appeared
that the sampling was adequate and statistically acceptable
for q/btudy of this type.
Selective factors. A check was made to discover
3 1 4 -
table II
THE HUMBER OP QUESTIONNAIRES RECEIVED FROM LEADING EDÜCAT ORS
ACCORDING TO GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS
Men Per cent Women Per cent Total Per cent
Middle States 82 18.2 116 2I1..L 198 21.)+
New England
k3
9.6 L i J j - 9.2
87 9.14-
North Central
189 ^2.0 188
39.5 377 l | . o.7
Western
53
11.8 62 13.0
115
12.I j.
Southern
83 18.1^ 66
13.9 1 I 4 - 9
16.1
Total l | - 3o 100 I 1 . 7 6 100 926 100
35
whether any particular selective factors were operating
which might cause certain educators to reply, while others
did not. This was done by comparing years of education,
marital status, political party preference, ages, feelings
of discrimination and Inferiority, educational level of
work, and the belief toward the propositions of the question
naire of the respondents from the same states or the same
geographical areas. It appeared that no particular selec
tive factor was operating, except willingness to cooperate
In the study, A more effective check might have been to
have interviewed the educators who did not reply and to have
discovered their reasons for not doing so. But on account
of the broad extent of territory covered by the study this
was not considered possible.
Questionnaire construction. Before drawing up his
outline of Issues Kirkpatrick^-^ made an extensive survey of the
official resolutions drawn up since 1900 by admittedly
femlninlst organizations, to try to establish the scope
and furnish the items for his scale. Only those statements
were taken which contained a specific demand for some change
in the status of women not yet effected throughout the
Clifford Kirkpatrick, "Content of a Scale for
Measuring Attitudes Toward Feminism," Spc. and Bpc. Research.
3 CK: $12-26, 1936.
36
whole United States* A list of eighty-six resolutions was
thus collected, and Kirkpatrick made slight changes in the
wording of those he used for purposes of condensation.
A number of difficulties were encountered in the
attempt to draw up a list of propositions which could be
used as a valid reflection of feminism. 1. Some of the
resolutions were long and wordy and difficult to condense,
2, The more recent literature shov/ed evidences of a split
in the women*s ranks over the question of identical rights and
equivalent rights. The National League of Women Voters favored
equivalent rights, whereas the National Women * s Party wanted
identical rights, claiming that le gislation for the protection
of women really discriminated against them. The former
party was more inclined to accept fundamental sex differences,
and a weaker bargaining status for women as a result, Conse
quently a member of the National Woman’s Party often found
herself fighting side by side with a patriarchal anti-femin
ist in opposing special factory legislation for v/omen. Thus
the resolutions did not always represent the majority of
women wanting legislative changes, 3* Official resolutions
did not always reflect beliefs and attitudes revealed in
unofficial writings by people specializing in the problems,
particularly in the domestic relations and conduct and social
status fields. This difficulty was avoided by phrasing
issues in general terms and then laying emphasis on ends
37
rather than means. Unofficial issues raised by the National
Women ^ s Party and the eighty-six resolutions previously
mentionned were combined and grouped under four headings:
(l) economic, (2) domestic, (3) political-legal, and (I|J
conduct and social status, to make up the outline of
issues which follows.
Outline of Feministic IssuesW
I. Economic :
a. Economic competition with men
b . Clash of economic activities with home duties
c. Independent choice of occupation
d. Professional training
e. Pay
f. Choice of conditions of work
g. Relative ability and status as compared with men
h. Emotional instability
i. Propriety in division of labor
j. Family allowances
II. Domestic :
a. Authority and responsibility with respect to
children
k' 3 Ibid77 523-2L!..
38
b. Obligation to bear children
c* Retention of name after marriage
d* Domestic obligations
e. Submissiveness
f. Personal charm
g. Financial policies and arrangements
h. Wordings of marriage service
i. Marital relations
j. Rights of daughters as compared with sons in
the family group
III, Political-legal :
a. Control of property
b. Office holding, jury service
c. Prosecution
d. Marriage and divorce laws
e, Inheritance and earnings from children
f.
Guardianship
g.
Nationality
h. Policewomen
i. Support, alimony and illegitimacy
j.
Bills and contracts
IV, Conduct and Social Status:
a. Double standard
b . Dress
39
c. Social and intellectual participation
d. Recreation
e. Chivalry
r* Speech
g. Moral qualities
h. Freedom from regulation
i # Intellectual qualities
j. Etiquette with reference to men
In the official resolutions dravm up by the women’s
parties, on the average 27 per cent of them were assigned
to the economic category, 3 per cent to the domestic, 5?
per cent to the political-legal, and 12 per cent to the
conduct and social status category. In Kirkpatrick’s out
line an equal proportion was assigned to each category,
which probably resulted in a more accurate picture of the
problem as a whole.
Reasons for usin^ the Kirkpatrick questionnaire. mod
ified. 1. This was the most complete and valid analysis
to date oh issues regarding the status of women. A complete
and laborious search had been made of the literature of the
eigiity outstanding women’s organizations, as well as of the
authoritative literature in the field. The findings had
been condensed into four categories, and ten issues drawn
1| . 0
up under each, A scale was then constructed with a liberal
and a conservative proposition on each issue, making a
total of eighty propositions, which appeared to cover the
field fairly thoroughly. 2, Three comparable forms were
made, and the reliability coefficients for all categories
except form G economic v/ere found to be high, ranging from
.85 to 3* The scale as used by Kirkpatrick was found
to have distinguished sharply betv/een feminist groups and
anti-feminist groups, also between Lutheran ministers and
feminist groups. l i . . A modification of the scale was
used by Patrick in her study of women executives in govern
ment positions, and was found to be satisfactory. 5« '
scale was of reasonable length and could be marked easily
and quickly in from ten to thirty minutes.
In the present study, it was decided to modify
Kirkpatrick *s questionnaire for various reasons. During
the intervening eleven years further psychological and
sociological discoveries had been made, and progress in the
direction of further liberality in equal status laws was
evident. Although the propositions were based on Kirk
patrick *s eighty issues, no attempt was made to soften or
becloud the issue involved. The propositions were worded
more vigorously, a.nd emotionally colored vmrds were avoided.
The propositions were made general rather than specific on
the assumption that these highly trained educators were
h i
capable of reacting to the general problem more enlighten-
ingly than to any specific aspect of It. Klrlcpatrlck has
justified this modification by his statement :
For other categories than.Form G economic category
and for total scores there Is reason to think that
propositions are on the average Interchangeable.4#
He added:
An even more valid, test of these problems would
be to have different forms of the same test prepared
Independently by different persons from the same
outline of Feminist Issues,m-?
The conservative, or non-equality of rights proposi
tion, was not Intended to be the direct opposite of the
liberal, although In many cases It may appear to be so.
The prime object of this study was not to check for logical
consistency of replies, but for the belief of the Individual
In the matter of equality of rights between women and men.
The vigor of expression was kept constant throughout,
although It was assumed that In total scores extremes would
tend to cancel each other out.
Arrangement of nronosltlons Into categories. Ho
attempt was made to arrange the propositions or the cate
gories In any definite order. The numbers one to eighty
till- Clifford Kirkpatrick, * ’The Construction of a Belief-
Pattern Scale for Measuring Attitudes Toward Feminism,
Jour. Son. Psychol.. VII: ïi21-37? 1936.
Tbld.,
were written on slips of paper, put in a box and drawn
out one by one. The propositions were arranged in the
order in v/hich their numbers were drawn. This procedure
avoided any slight danger there may have been of blanket
responses. There was the further danger of primacy,
fatigue and cumulative response, but it was assumed that
with such a g roup of highly educated people these dangers
were so small as to be negligible.
As finally presented the propositions in the
questionnaire were arranged as follows :
X Category
Economic Liberal propositions
Original
number
1, 2, Women should be their ovm judges, subject only
to native capacity, to enter training for a parti
cular occupation,
2, 1 j-, Women should have a voice in the making of condi
tions and the setting of hours under which they
work,
3, 6. Women should be as free as men to compete in every
sphere of economic activity,
I | . , 10, The relative amounts of time spent on home duties
and on one ^ s career should be determined by personal
preference rather than by sex.
5. l5* The intellectual capacity of women entitles them
to full equality with men in the administration of
public affairs,
6, 28. Every individual, regardless of sex, should be free
to choose his own vocation.
' -\
k3
Original
niimber
7. 30..The belief that women are too emotional to make good
medical doctors and lawyers is no more true than
many of our superstitions,
8. 33. Both women and men should do the jobs for which they
are best fitted regardless of sex.
9. 36. As in the business partnership, both husband and
wife should have an equal share in deciding how
the family income should be spent.
10. 6L-. There should be equal pay for equal work regardless
of the sex of the worker.
Economic Conservative propositions
Original
number
1. 1. Women should be prohibited from economic competition
with men.
2. 3* is in the interests of society that there be a
distinct division of labor for men and women.
3. 5* A man should receive a higher salary than a woman
for identical work.
I | - . 7* I'hG husband should make the final decision as to
how the family income should be spent.
5. 8. Women are too emotional to make good medical doctors,
6. - 9. Women should accept men * s decisions as to what
occupations they are best fitted for.
7 . ill-. ^ woman who continues to work outside the home after
marriage is neglecting her responsibility to home
and family.
8. 22. The intellectual leadership of the community should
be largely in the hands of men.
9. 23. Too much money is spent on professional training for
women.
b l | .
Original
niimber
10* 29* Women should be guided by men as to the hours and
conditions under v/hich they work.
Category 2
Domestic Liberal propositions
Original
number
1. 11. Parents should have equal responsibility in the
rearing of children.
2. 19. Marriage should be a partnership in which there
should be no question of the submission of any one
partner.
3. 2Lj.. Non-working married women should expect a regular
housekeeping and personal allotment as a necessary
part of home management, rather than as a f avor.
I } . . 32. Daughters should have the same privileges and
opportunities as the sons,
5. 38. Both women and men should keep their ovm names after
marriage if they wish to do so.
6. Ij-O. The word "obey" should apply equally to both partners
if it is to be used in the marriage service.
7. Ij-6. Married women should have full control of their
persons and give or withhold sex intimacy as they
wi sh.
8. L|-8. A man is no more justified in expecting his wife to
be charming at all times than she is justified in
expecting him to be,
9. ?0. Married women should not feel duty-bound to bear
children against their wishes.
10. 53. Married women should struggle against becoming do
mestic servants.
L5
Domestic Conservative propositions
Original
number
1, 12, A woman should be required by law to take her
husband * s name at marriage.
2, 1 3, The husband should reserve the right to decide on
all purchases before having to pay for them.
3, 1 6. If there is Insufficient money for a'higher educa
tion for both sons and daughters, all the available
money should be spent on the son*s education.
I | . . 17. The ''obey" should be retained in the marriage
service a^an appropriate part of the wife*s marriage
vows, '
5. 18. A married woman should perform her "conjugal duty"
at her husband* s request regardless of her oyiyi
feelings in the matter,
6. 20. When a woman marries she should expect all outside
interests to give way to her domestic obligations.
7. 31. wife should be expected to keep herself charming
for her husband at all times.
8. 39. The father should, make the final decision in all
important matters concerning the upbringing of the
children.
9. The wife should be submissive to her husband at
all times .
10. 7l | . . When a woman marries she automatically obligates
herself to bear children.
Gate^oi^: 1
Political-legal Liberal propositions
Original
number
1. 21. The wife should have the same legal rights and
k6
Original
number
priveleges in making her will that is accorded to
her husband,
2. 27. Women policemen should be appointed in every city
to insure fairness and consideration for women law
enforcement,
3 » 35. ^^en and women should have equal rights in regard to
the property.of a deceased child who had died without
making a will.
Ip, .111, Married women should have the legal right to citizen
ship irrespective of that of their husband * s,
5* 55* I^ivorce laws should be the same for both men and
women,
6. 63. Legal pressure should be brought to bear to secure
support from fathers of illegitimate children,
7. 66. Disposal of real property or of common earnings by
the husband without the wife * s consent should be
restricted- by làws.
8. 69. Legal restrictions affecting minimum hours and con
ditions of employment should be uniform for both
women and men,
9* 7!?. "^he mother and father should by law have equal
rights to the guardianship of their children,
10. 77* In the interests of society there should be a
merit system of public appointment and promotion
regardless of sex.
Political-legal Conservative propositions
Original
number
1 . 2 6, The wife should be prevented by law from willing
any of her property away from her husband,
2, 3I ) . , It is in the interests of society that mothers of
h i
Original
nnmber
illegitimate children should be required to take
full financial responsibility for them.
3* 51 • %men should be ineligible for public offices
involving heavy civic or national responsibility.
U. $9. husband should be empowered by law to dispose
of family property as he deems in the best interests
of the family.
5. 61. The father should have preference as the legal
guardian of a minor child.
6. 63. Police duty should be restricted to men.
7. 67. The father should have more claim to the earnings of
a minor child than the mother.
8. 71* The husband should be permitted special grounds for
divorce that are not available for the wife.
9. 73* ^ woman should be required by law to accept her
husband*s nationality,
10 . 78* There should be special laws defining the hours and
working conditions for women which may differ from
those applying to men.
Category
Conduct and social status Liberal propositions
Original
number
1. 2$. if a woman wishes to marry a man she should make
every effort, within reason, to do so.
2. Ii2. All laws and social requirements should be uniform
for women and men.
3. 1^-5- Women and men have equal intellectual capacity.
1 ^ . . k-9* ^ woman should be equally efficient when men are
present and when they are not.
I i - 8
Original
number
5» 52. It is no more objectionable to hear questionable
language used by a woman than by a man.
6, ^k. Any form of athletic activity should be open to
women who care to participate,
7. 56, It is in the interests of society that women take
a greater responsibility in the social and intellec
tual leadership of community affairs,
8, 62. Women should decide for themselves what is appro
priate in feminine dress.
9. 70. A v/oinan should be accorded the same freedoms under
society ^ s code of customs and regulations as a
man,
10, 76, There should be a single standard in sex matters
for women and men.
Conduct and social status Conservative propositions
Original
number
1, 37* It is in the interests of society for a woman to be
the "clinging vine" type of person.
2, .1^3. It is more objectionable for a woman to swear than
it is for a man,
3, li-7. The unmarried mother should be censured more severely
than the unmarried father,
k, 57• Women should take the passive role in courtship.
5, 58. Women should be guided by men * s views as to
.decorum and decency in dress.
6, 60, It is appropriate that tradition and custom have
provided a somewhat different standard for men than
that provided for women.
7, 68. Training for the social and intellectual leadership
of Community affairs should be largely restricted
to men.
k9
Original
nvornbev
8* 72, There should be a distinction between men * s and
women * s sports.
9' 79. Legislation protecting women is more greatly
needed than similar laws for men.
10. 80. Men are superior to women intellectually. ^
Reliability. In his work on the construction of a
belief-pattern scale for measuring attitudes toward women*s
rights, Kirkpatrick prepared three different forms which
he called Forms A, B, and C, using the same issues in each
case, but wording his propositions differently. He did
this in an effort to discover whether the difference in the,
wording of the proposition would seriously affect the scoring
of the questionnaire. He based his claim of reliability on
the following :
1. The test re-test reliability of Form A was
determined by fifty-nine University of Minne
sota students, mostly sophomores, who were
given the test one week and again a week later.
The Pearson coefficient of correlation was
.85 with a standard error of .037.
2. An item comparison was made between the two
tests. Eighty-two per cent of the propositions *
v/hich were checked or double checked the first time
were also checked or double checked the s econd
go
time. The same percentage of propositions were
checked on both tests.
3. Forms and G of the test v/ere correlated, a
device corresponding to ,the split-half method.of
testing for reliability. This procedure was
important for the purposes of this study in that
it had a bearing upon the validity of the assump
tion that proposition acceptances were, on the
average, comparatively equal and interchangeable
units.
Forms A and B were given to 217 University of Minne
sota students. The correlation was found to be .89 with a
standard error of ,Olli.,
Forms A and G were given to 9^ men students of the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The
Correlation was ,9l|- with a standard of error of ,012,
Forms B and G were taken by another group of 88
University of Minnesota students of the sophomore and
freshman classes. The coefficient of correlation was
found to be ,90 with a standard error of .019.
Uo claim was made that these coefficients of relia
bility meant approximate identity of paired scores. Test
scores on one form might have been consistently high as com
pared with scores on another, and yet vary concomitantly.
A comparison of the means of the three different
51
forms allowed, that the discrepancies between the scores on
the different forms were not due to a constantly larger
score on any one form. It was apparent that the mean total
scores corresponded closely when.two forms were given to the
same group of students.
Inconsistencies found in the a cceptance of comparable
propositions on the different forms, particularly the Form
G economic category, suggested another method of checking
for reliability, which Kirkpatrick investigated, in some
d e t a i l , A comparison was made of the proportion of stu
dents who accepted propositions on Forms A, and G covering
the same issues. In proportion as people are affected by
the approach to and wording of a proposition, to that extent
will there be a discrepancy in the proportion accepting that
proposition as compared with another proposition bearing
on the same issue,
No attempt was made to construct anti-feminist prop
ositions which would be the exact opposite of feminist, nor
was any attempt made to approach the issue in the same way
in the three forms. An instrument is valid only in propor
tion as it brings forth reactions to meanings rather than to
verbalisms.
Kirkpatrick concluded:
^ - * 5 ' Ibid.. lj.21-37.
52
It is perhaps surprising that the average inter
changeability of propositions, as revealed by feminist-
anti -feminist score sigma scores correlations and inter-
form correlations and mean scores, is as great as seems
to be the case.W
It was apparent that the three forms of the test, with
different propositions bearing on the various issues for
the three forms, gave very much the same results. There was
good empirical evidence for assuming the average interchange
ability of acceptance responses to propositions based on the
original forty issues.
Validity. 1, In discussing the validity of his
scale, Kirkpatrick contended, that it had a certain inherent
validity if the outline of issues were accepted as a fair
expression of the cultural movement since 1900. ^n objec
tive test based on such an outline of issues therefore had
a corresponding validity. Then too, each proposition was
uniformly classified by competent judges as feminist or
anti-feminist, and placed in its proper category.
2. The scores on the test showed a close correspond
ence to the behavior of individuals well-knovm to Kirkpatrick,
but this was not susceptible to statistical presentation.
3« The test was given to a group of women who be
longed to the National League of Women Voters or the National
Kirkpatrick, "Content of a Scale for Measuring
Attitudes Toward Feminism," loc. cit«
53
Women*s Party, that is a group v/hich might be expected to
be liberal tov/ard the question of equality of rights.
Another was given to a group of Lutheran ministers, who
were expected to be more patriarchal in their viewpoint.
There was a difference of 23.9 points in their mean scores,
with a standard deviation of only 2.08. The women and the
men students of the University of Minnesota showed a diff
erence of 10.7 in their mean scores, with a standard error
of difference of only 0.9. Thus it seemed that the scale
discriminated between groups in accordance with common
sense expectations, and was valid as a research instrument.
In the present study a number of doctoral candidates
on the campus of the University of Southern California
acted as critics and judges in the selection of propositions
and their placement into categories. Propositions which
appeared to be slanted in either direction v/ere discarded;
unnecessary or ambiguous words were eliminated; checks were
made to verify the claim that the propositions reflected
the original pattern of issues.
Explanation of scoring: procedure. As received, the
questionnaires were scored against the marked master copy,
and the replies tabulated. All the data from each were
listed in separate columns along with the final score. This
procedure made it easy to see at a glance a person * s score
along with any of the variables, such as age, political
party affiliation, years of education, and so forth. It
also obviated the necessity of having numerous piles of
questionnaires lying around at the risk of becoming mixed
up •
The basic assumption in scoring the questionnaire
was that liberal and conservative propositions could be
considered in a positive-negative relationship--the liberal
or pro-equality of rights being positive, the conservative
or anti-equality of rights, negative. The final score
could have ranged from plus eighty, which was the highest
liberal score possible, to minus eighty, the highest
conservative or lowest liberal score possible. A score of
two was given for each liberal and for each conservative
proposition accepted. One was added to the liberal score
and one to the conservative for each inconsistency, and one
to the liberal and one to the conservative for each proposi
tion left unchecked. In this way, both the propositions and
the scoring counterbalanced one another, For example, a
questionnaire might have been returned v/ith thirty-three
liberal propositions and twenty conservative propositions
checked. A closer examination might have revealed the
fact that of these, twenty were liberal, seven conservative
and five inconsistent, that is both the liberal and conser
vative propositions bearing on the same issue had been
55
accepted. For eight others both the liberal and the conser
vative had been left unchecked. A score of forty was given
to the liberal, and fourteen to the conservative score, plus
an added thirteen to the liberal and thirteen to the conser
vative for the combined inconsistencies and omissions
making a total liberal score of fifty-three, and a total
conservative score of twenty-seven, or a grand total of
eighty. The combined liberal-conservative score was obtained
by subtracting twenty-seven from fifty-three, for a score
of twenty-six. Since this was on the plus side of zero, for
the purpose of simplification, it was called a liberal score.
Any score less than zero, had there been any, would have, by
the same token, been referred to as conservative.
./
Limitations of the questionnaire survey. Questionnaire
studies are subject to certain limitations, a few of which
follow:
1. Accuracy of results. This investigation has the
limitations of all questionnaire studies in that
the incomplete returns and the nature of the
questionnaire give rise to the question of the
accuracy of the results.
2. Sameling. As usual there were^difficulties in,
and there might be some question of, the method
used of obtaining a complete coverage or repre
sentative sampling.
^6
'3* Change. No person remains static. The change
in some may be more rapid than in others . In
some cases the data might be no longer true
shortly after it is given.
I | - . Migration. An area might express a certain be
lief at one time, and owing to the American
penchant for moving around, that belief might
not be true of that same area a short time later.
5* Interpretation, ^ords connote different things
to different people.
6. Symbolization of belief. The response might have
been different had the person, object, or situa
tion been present.
7. Ambivalence. A person might have both contrary
and opposite beliefs on the same question, and
the difference in wording between the liberal and
conservative propositions might tend to bring this
out. For this reason inconsistencies in replies
were counter-balanced in the tabulation of scores.
8. Fength. The length of the questionnaire might
affect the validity of the returns.
9. Weighting. The r eturns to the questionnaire study
are usually weighted in that only those more
interested, or in many cases more educated, bother
to r eply.
57
10. lime element. People may be willing to coop
erate, but may not have the time to think a
thing through, especially if it is a question
to which they have given little thought in
the past,
11. Inherent liberalism of questionnaire. There
may be an inherent quality of liberalism in the
nature of the questionnaire which may tend to
make the resulting scores appear more liberal
than they are in actuality,
12. Uncontrolled variables. Certain other uncon
trolled or unknown variables might intrude to
affect the score,
Summary, This chapter has outlined the method of
investigation. The scope included the forty-eight states of
the United States divided up into five geographical areas :
The Middle States, New England, North Central, Western and
Southern States, The method used was the questionnaire
study, 3,000 copies having been sent out to leading educators
whose names were selected from Cattell^s collection of
leaders in education, A letter was sent along with the
questionnaire explaining the purpose of the study and seeking
their cooperation. The use of certain terms was explained.
Nine hundred tv/enty-six usable replies were received, every
58
state "being represented, and the information tabulated for
further analytical and statistical study,
The questionnaire construction and background was
based on Kirkpatrick^s investigation of the demands of women*s
organizations and the literature in the field since 1900. ’
The propositions were based on the forty issues selected
by him and the breakdovm of those issues into four categories,
economic, domestic, political-legal, and conduct and social
status. The eighty propositions were patterned on Kirk
patrick * 8 forty issues and were critically inspected by a
group of doctoral candidates before the questionnaire was
drawn up.
The instrument appeared to be both reliable and valid;
the scoring was from minus eighty to plus eighty; the limi
tations of the questionnaire study, which are common to all
studies of this kind, were noted in an effort to secure an
overall picture of the problem.
PART I I
CHAPTER IV
THE QUE8TI0NHAIRE A m THE PERCENTAGE OF AGREE/ŒNT
TO THE PROPOSITIONS IN IT
It will be recalled that Part I, or the first three
chapters, introduced the problem, reviewed the related lit
erature of the field, and discussed the method of investi
gation.
Part II, consisting of chapters IV to X inclusive,
constitutes the body of the study and contains analyses
of the findings of the questionnaire. These Include compar
isons of geographical areas and beliefs of leading educators,
age and beliefs, level of education and belie% level of
work and belief^ political party preference and beliefs, and
analyses of some of the findings from the personal data sheet
The scores of the men and women respondents were tabulated
together to show average results, and separately to discover
whether there were any significant differences between the
two.
The present chapter presents an analyses of the
over a. 11 findings regarding the beliefs of leading educators
toward the equal status problem, of the men, of the v/omen,
and of the total group.
6o
questionnaire. iiie questionnaire, a copy of
which is included in the appendix, was printed in the form
of a four page leaflet. The first page outlined the in
structions for marking and returning. The second and third
and part of the fourth pages contained the eighty proposi
tions upon which the study was based. The remainder of the
fourth included a series of eighteen questions seeking
various types of information, an analysis of \?hich, it was
felt, might help to explain the educators* reasons for
responding as they did, A space was left for remarks, of
which many of the respondents took advantage.
Each questionnaire was numbered to facilitate tabul
ation, although no record was kept of the educator to whom
any questionnaire was sent.
A letter of explanation and a stamped, addressed
return envelope were enclosed with the questionnaire and
mailed to three thousand leading educators across the
country.
Replies received. Nine hundred twenty-six usable
replies were received from all levels of educators, including
university and college professors, secondary and elementary
teachers and administrators, librarians, superintendents and
supervisors and a miscellaneous group of educators, from'
every state in the United States. Four hundred fifty of
6i
these responses were from men educators and l\Sl6 from women*
Dlstribution of liberal scores * Scores were presented
in terms of liberal versus conservative* The method of
scoring as a basis for arriving at the conclusion as to
whether the findings Y/ere liberal or conservative was ex
plained in the previous chapter. Figure I gives a general
picture of the total scores of the 926 respondents, according
to the distribution of liberal scores made to the eighty
propositions. It was apparent that these educators Y/ere
indeed liberal. The frequencies were definitely greater
toward the upper or liberal end. The mean score for the
total group was 66.q, the median 67.8, and the first and
third quartlies 62 and 72*5 respectively, out of a possible
score of 80. Fifty per cent of the respondents made liberal
scores between 62 and 72.5.
It might be pointed out here that these educators
could have been expected to have made a far more liberal
score than the population as a whole or than the teaching
body as a whole. Harper^-8 concluded that the more education
people have, the more liberal they tend to be in their
general outlook. His coefficient of correlation indicated
^-8 Manly Harper, Social Beliefs and Attitudes of
American Educators. New York : Teachers % liege, Columbia
University, 1927, 67*
62
Frequency
200
100
0 10 20
60
30
Propositions accepted
FIOmE 1
DISTRIBUTION OP TOTAL EDUCATOR SCORES
63
a positive and substantial relationship betvmen extent of
education and scores on the test.
This positive increase in score associated with
further education may be explained by ah increasing back
ground of knowledge of conditions as v/ell as by an increased
power for reflective thinking.
Table III presents the total score distribution,
first for the men, next for the women, and then for both
together. ^he men’s mean of 6L;..8? was 3.18 points lower
than the women’s of 68.0$, the total mean of 66.$0 falling,
of course, between the two. This difference was $.82 times
its standard deviation and was therefore statistically sig
nificant. The indication was that there were one thousand
chances in one thousand that this was a true difference and
not due to sampling errors, or that the true difference
between the mean scores of the women and the men was greater
than zero. In other words, the obtained difference was
large enough to predict that it is practically certain that
the average liberal score of the women will be more liberal
than the average of the men in subsequent studies of this
kind.
The median and quartile scores shovfed a comparative
variation from low to high. The men’s median of 6$.$6 was
less liberal than the women’s median of 69.27. The third
quartile point, as well as the first quartlie point for
TABLE I I I
DISTRIBUTION OF LIBERALISM SCORES BY
SEX AND FOR THE TOTAL GROUP
6 k
Score
Men
Frequency
Women
Frequency
Total
Frequency
78-80 20
33 53
75-77 30 56 86
72-74
$8 82 l I { -0
69-71 66 90 156
60-68 52 70 122
6 3 -6 5 68 58 126
60-62
hh
30 7L
57-59 52 22 74
54-56
1 1 4-
16 30
51-53
21 8 20
48-50 8 6
14
45-47 k
0
Ï 42-Wi- 3
1
39-ia 5
0
5
36-38 2 0 2
33-35
2 0
2
30-32 1 1 2
27-29 0 1 1
24-26 0 0 0
21-23 0 2 2
Total i | . 5 o 476 926
Mean 6I 1..8 68.0
66.5
Standard deviation 8.7
7.9
8 .4
Median 65.6
6 9 .3
6 7 .8
Third quartile
point
7 1 .3 73. 7 2 .5
First quartile
point
6 9 .5
6 1 i . . 2 62.0
Meaiif - Mean^ = 3.2 Standard error of tLe difference = .55
t = 5.8 Significant at 1 per cent level
6 ^
the men, was also lower than the corresponding values for
the women.
Total individual scores ranged from a high of eighty
to a low of twenty-three. The women's range was a little
greater than the men’s, that is, from a high of eighty to
a low of twenty-three, as compared with the men’s high of
eighty and lovj of thirty-two.
It was evident that the women were inclined to be a
little more liberal in regard to their own equal status
problem than were the men. On the whole, both the men’s
and women’s scores were extremely liberal as was shown by
a total third quartile score of 72.^2 and a first quartile
one of 62.03.
Description and comparison of percentage of agreement
responses to separate propositions of the questionnaire.
The eighty propositions were listed in the order in which
they appeared in the questionnaire, and the percentage of
total educators that agreed with each proposition was com
puted. The percentage of men’s agreement was next found, and
then of women’s. Table IV presents the results in tabular
form.
It was evident by the range, from a high of 98.6 to
a low of .85, that there was a great deal of disparity
in the amount of acceptance of the various propositions.
66
TABLE IV
PERCENTAGE OF AGREEMENT BY SEX AND FOR THE TOTAL GROUP
IN THE ORDER OF ITEMS IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Total Men * s Women's
' ■ r ■
Total Men* s Women * j
per cent per cent per cent per cent per cent per cei
Item agreem’t agreem*t agreem't Item agreem* t agreem* t agreem
1 '
2.9 iti
87.2
83.7 90.7
2
89.7 86.8 92.6
ff
71.6
75.5
67.6
3
9.5 5.6 36.6 38.k 3k.8
h
96.2 96.k 96.0
m .9 1.2
„6.k
10.lt-
2.3 k5 8k-9 82.k 87.3
6
88.5 85.5 91.5
k6 6k. 8
63.7 65.9
7 h-.l 7.7
1.6
k7
3.2 2.8
3.5
8
3.3 U.2 2.3 k8 79.0 76.7 81.3
9 .9 .7
1.0
85.7
82.8 88.6
10 76.1 66.2
85.9 50 57.2 58.0
56.3
11 92.2
89.7 9k.7 51 6.7 7.7
5.6
12
30.5
là.k
19.5 52 38.6
3k-8 j j j L .k
13 7.1 6.8
7.3
li
68.0 76.8 59.2
Ik
1?
13.5 19.3 7.7 70.3 68.k
72.2
8I4..6 78.6
90.5 55 9k. 0 95.5
92.6
16 k.6 6.2
2.9 56 7k. 2
72.2 76.2
17 6.3 7.7
k.8
57
10.0
7.7 12.3
18 3.0 2.L
3.5 58 7.1 7.3 ■
6.0
19
92.6 90.6
95.1 59 2.3 3.1 1 # k
20
8.3 11.1
5.k
60
12.5
15.7
9.2
21 98.2
97.3 99.1
61
k-i 5.3 2.9
22 3.2
5.3
1.0 62
77. k
7k. 2 80.6
23 1.2 2.0
.k
63 90.5 89.7 91.3
2k 87.1
82 . l i -
91.8
6k
88.6 80.0 97.2
25 73.3
78.k 68.2
65 k.5
l|-.6
26 2.6 2.6
2.5
66
77.1
70.6 83.6
27
62.2
60.2 6k. 2
67
3.6
5-k 8-3
28 98.6 98.8 .
98.3
68
1.5 2.k .6
29 1.0
1.7
.2
69
■ 53.6
52.8
5k* ^ 1 -
30 86.7
82.6
90.7
70 77.5
78.2 70.8
31
37.0
35.7
38.2
71
1.0
.9 1.0
32
93.9 91.7
■ 9610 72 36.0 39.5 32.5
33
96.7
96.0
97.k 73 2.7 k.6 .8
3k
5.0
7.5 2.5 7k
18.6 16.8
20.5
35 91.I t . 90.0 92.8
75 89.3
86.6 92.0
36 96.0 9k.lt- 97.6 76 83.3
8k. 6 82.0
37 .9
.8 1.0
77 88.9 83.5
9k* 3
38 ko.6 28.0 53.1
78 k7.0 k8.o k6.0
39
1.6 2.k .8
79
)-tk*8 ltl t - . 6
Lik*9
ko 63.8
63.5
6k. 0 80 i.k 1.5
1.2
67
particularly of the liberal ones as compared with the
conservative. Figure 2 shows at a glance the percentage of
acceptance of each proposition. The numbers in the squares
correspond with the numbers of the propositions as listed
in the questionnaire. The figures at the bottom show the
percentage of agreement received by those propositions. Tt
is evident that the liberal propositions showed a high agreement
and the conservative propositions a low.
The men * s percentage of agreement varied only slight
ly from the total agreement as to range and amount, that is,
from a high of 98.8 to a low of .6; the v/omen*s ranged from.
a high of 99.1 to a low of .2, showing a slightly higher
liberal agreement than the men.
For purposes of comparison, the propositions y/ere
next listed. Tables V, VI, and VII, pages 69, 70, and 71
respectively, for the total group, for the men and for the
y/omen, according to the amount of total acceptance shown
for each proposition from greater to lesser amounts. It
was again evident that the liberal propositions for the
three groups showed a considerably higher acceptance ratio
than the conservative.
Percentage of agreement according to categories.
The thirty-eight propositions accepted by half or more,
that is, fifty to one hundred per cent of the respondents,
placed in their proper categories, whowed the following
breakdown:
68
Propositions by number
71
26
22
20
17 ^
13 6o
5 57 ,
3 Hi- 7U
56 66
19 21
11 k
W 79 „ ^ ^
12 31 38 78 69 5o
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 lio i i - 5 5o 55 6o 65 70 75 8o 85 90 95 loo
Percentage of acceptance
FIGURE 2
DISTRIBUTION OF THE EIGHTY PROPOSITIONS OF THE
QUESTIONNAIRE ACCORDING TO THE PERCENTAGE OP EDUCA
TORS ACCEPTING EACH PROPOSITION
69
TABLE V
PROPOSITIONS RANKED IN THE ORDER OF PEEOENTAGE OF AGREEÎ.ÎENT
Order
H-uQuîyef»'
of pro
positions
Per cent
of total
I agreement Order
Mnmber
of pro
positions
Per cent
of total
agreement
1 28 98.6
ki
38 4o.6
2 21 98.2 k2 52 36.6
3 33 96.7 k3
31 37.0
h
k 96.2
k5
43
3 6 .6
1
:)9
96.0 72 36.0
6
55
9li-.0 k6 12
30.5
7
32
93.9 k? 74
1 8 .6
8
19 92.9 k8 14 13.5
9
11 92.2
k9
6o
12.5
10
35 91.14- 50 57
10.0
11 63 90.g
51 3
9 .6
12 2
89.7
53
20
8 .3
13 75 89.3
58 7.1
ik - 77 88.9 54 13 7.11
15
6k 88.6
55 51 6.7
16
4i
88.5 56
5 6 .4
17
87.2
57 17 6.3
18
24
87.1 58
34
5.0
19
30
86.7 59 7 4.7
20
49 87.5
60 16 k.6
21
45 8k.9
6l
65 4.5
22
15
sk.ô 62 6i
4 .1
23 76
83.3 67
3.6
2(
48 79.0
64
8
3 .3
70
77.5 65 47
3.2
26 62
77.k
66 22 3.2
27 66
77.1 67
1 3.0
28 10 76.1 68 18 3.0
29 56
7k. 2
69
73 2.7
30
73.3 70 26 2.6
31
71.6
71 59 2.3
32
54
70.3
72 1.6
33 53 68.0 73
68
1.5
34. 46 6k. 8
74
80
1.4
35 4o 63.8
75 23
1.2
36 27 62.2 76
71 1.0
37 50 57.2
77 29 1.0
38
69
53.6 78
37
.9
78 k7.0 79 44 .9
40
79
ko.6 80
9 .9
70
TABLE V I
PROPOSITIONS RANKED IN THE ORDER OP PERCENTAGE OP AGREEfœUT
FOR THE MEN EDUCATORS
1
Order
Number
of pro
positions
Per cent
of total
agreement Order
Number
of pro
positions
Per cent
of total
agreement >
1 28 98.8
la
12
ki.k
2 21
97.3 L2
72
39.5
i
$
33
96.
96.0
i£
38.k
35.8
1 95.3 L5 31 35.7
6 36
9k-.k-
(46 38 28.0
7
32
91.7 L7
k
19.3
6
19
90.6 k8
7k
16.8
9 35
90.0
I 4 . 9
60 15.7
10 11
89.7 50 23 13.3
11
63 89.7 51
20 11.1
12 2 86,8 52 5 10. k
13 75
86,6
53 7 7.7
ill. 6 85.5
5( 17 7.7
15
76, 8U..6
55 51 7.7
l6 I}!
83,7
56 57 7.7
17 77 83,5 57
3k 7.5
18
Ii9
82.8
58
58
7.3
19 30 82.6
59 13
6 .8
20
A
82. L i . 60 16 6 .2
21
L5
82.1 ; . 61 22
5.3
22
%
80.0 62 61
5.3
23
13
78.6 63
65
k.6
21| . 25
78.k
6ll 73
k.6
25
70 78.2
65
8 k.2
26 76.8 66
67 k.O
27 L8
42
76.7 67 59
k.o
28
75,5
68 1
3.1
2p 62 7h.2
69 k7
2.8
30 72,2
70 26 2.6
31
66 70,6
71
18 2.k
32
51* .
68. L | . 72 68
2.k
33
10 66.2
73 39 2.k
3k 63,7 7 l i . 23
2,0
35
1 4 .0
63,5 75 29 1 .7
36 27 60.2 76 80
1.5
37
50 58.0 77 71 .9
38 69 52,8 78
37 .9
78 kS.O
79 kk .7
L]0 79
i | J L L,6 80
9 .7
71
TABLE V I I
PROPOSITIONS RANKED IN TEE ORDER OF PERCENTAGE OF AGREEMENT
FOR THE VfOIÆEN EDUCATORS
Order
Niimber
of pro
positions
Per cent
of total
agreement Order
Nmaber
of pro
positions
Per cent
of total
agreement
1 21
99.1 4i 79 44.9
2 28
98.3
f?
52
3
36 97.6
31
38.2
4
97.4
43
43
34.8
%
64 97.2 72 32.g
6 32 96.0 46
74
20.5
7
4
96.0
47
12
19.5
8
19 95.1 48 57
12.3
9 11
94.7 49
60 9.2
10
77 94.3
50
14
7.7
11
35
92.8
51 13 7.3
12
55
92.6 52 58
6.9
13
2 92.6
53 51
5.6
4
75
92.0
54 3
5.6
15
2k 91.8
55
20
5.4
16 o
91.5 56 17
4.8
17 63 91.3 57
6^
4.4
18 30 90.7 58
18
19 hi 90.7 3.5
20
15
90.5 60 67 3.3
21
49
88.6 61 1
2.9
22
45 87.3
62 16
2.9
21 10
83.9
63 61
2.9
24 66 83.6 64 26
2.5
76 82.0
65 34 2.5
26 li8 81.3 66 8
2.3
27 62 80.6
67 5 2.3
28 70 76.8 68
7
1.6
29
56 ' 76.2 69
1 . 4
30
54
7 2 . 2 70
f } h
1.2
31 25
68.2
71
80 1.2
32 67.6 72 9
1.0
33 46 65.9 73
22 1.0
34 27
64.2
74
37 1.0
35
4o
64.0
75 71
1.0
36
53
39.2 76
39
.8
37 50 36.3 77 73
.8
38
69 34.4
78 68 .6
39
38
33.1 79 23
. 4
40 78 4 6 . 0 80 29
.2
72
PROPOSITIONS, ACCORDING TO CATEGORY, ACCEPTED BY
FIFTY PER GENT OR Ï.IORE OF TIDE LEADING EDUCATORS
I. Economic
Percentage
Original of
number acceptance
1. 10. The relative amounts of time spent on home duties
and on one’s career should be determined by per
sonal preference rather than by sex, 7^- 80
2. 1^. The intellectual capacity of women entitles them
to full equality with men in the administration
of public affairs. 80- 85
3. 61i_. There should be equal pay for equal work regard
less of the sex of the worker. 85- 90
L i . . 30. The belief that women are too emotional to make
good medical doctors and lavryers is no more true
than many of our superstitions. 85- 90
5.. 6. Women should be as free as men to compete in
every sphere of economic activity. 85- 90
6. 2. Women should be their ovm judges, subject only
to native capacity, to enter training for a
particular occupation. 85- 90
7. 36. As in a business partnership, both husband and
wife should have an equal share in deciding how
the family income should be spent. 95-100
8. 33* Both women and men should do the jobs for which
they are best fitted regardless of sex. 95-100
9. 28. Every individual, regardless of sex, should be
free to choose his own vocation. 95-100
10. )q. Women should have a voice in the making of
conditions and the setting of hours under which
they work. 95-100
Total 10
The ten propositions above are all liberal.
73
II, Domestic
Percentage
Original of
number acceptance
1. 50« Married women should not feel duty-bound to bear
children against their wishes. ^ 55- 6o
2. L6. Marr^ied women should have full control of their
persons and give or withhold s ex intimacy as
they v/ish. 60- 6$
3. ho, The word "obey" should apply equally to both
partners if it is to be used in the marriage
service, 60-
l i . . S3. Married women should struggle against becoming.
domestic servants, , 6^- 70
5. L.8. A man is no more justified in expecting his wife
to be charming at all times than she is 'justified
in expecting him to be, 75- 80
6. 2 l | . , Non-working married women should e xpect a regular
housekeeping and personal allotment as a necessary
part of home management, rather than as a
favor, 85- 90
7. 11. Parents should have equal responsibility in the
rearing of children, 90- 95
8. 32. Daughters should have the same privileges and
opportunities as the sons, 90- 95
9. 19. Marriage should be a partnership in which there
should be no question of the submission of any
one partner, 90- 95
Total 9
The nine propositions used above are all liberal,
III, Political-legal
1. 69. Degal restrictions affecting minimum hours and
conditions of employment should be uniform for
both women and men, 50- 55
7 l | .
Percentage
Original of
number acceptance
2, 27. l^omen policemen should be appointed in every city
to insure fairness and consideration for women in
law enforcement. 60- 65
3. 66, Disposal of real property or of common earnings
by the husband without the wife’s consent should
be restricted by law. 75- 80
It. 77* Dn the interests of society there should be a
merit system of public appointment and promotion
regardless of sex. 85- 90
5. 75. Phe mother and father should by law have equal
rights to the guardianship of their child
ren. 85- 90
6. I } -1. Married women should have the legal right to
citizenship irrespective of that of their
husband’s. 85- 90
7. 35* Men and women should have equal rights in regard
to the property of a deceased child who has died
without making a v/ill. 90- 95
8. 55* Divorce laws should be the same for both men and
women. 90- 95
9. 63. Degal pressure should be brought to bear to se
cure support from fathers of illegitimate
children. 90- 95
10. 21, The v/ife should have the same legal rights and
priveleges in making her will that are accorded to
her husband. 95-100
Total 10
The ten propositions in this category are all
liberal.
IV, Conduct and social status
75
Percentage
Original of
number acceptance
1. 25. If a vfoiiian wishes to marry a man she should make
every effort, within reason, to do so, 70- 75
2. 1^2, All laws and social requirements should be uniform •
for women and men. 70- 75
3. Ii-5. Women and men have equal intellectual
capacity. 8O- 85
k, k9, A woman should be equally efficient when men
are present and when they are not, 85- 90
5. 5k* ^ny form of athletic activity should be open
to women who care to participate. 70- 75
6. 56, It is in the interests of society that women take
a greater responsibility in the social and intellec
tual leadership of community affairs, 70- 75
7. 62, Women should decide for themselves what is appro
priate in feminine dress. 75- 80
8. 70. A woman should be accorded the same freedoms under
society*s code of customs and regulations as a
man. 75- 80
9. 76, There should be a single standard in sex matters
for women and men, 80- 85
Total 9
The above nine propositions are liberal.
Of these thirty-eight propositions•accepted by fifty
to one hundred per cent of the respondents, all are liberal.
Two liberal propositions were accepted by less than fifty
per cent and these are discussed in the section following.
Those forty-two propositions accepted by less than
fifty per cent of the leading educators showed the follov;ing
breakdovm :
76
I. Economic
Percentage
Original of
number acceptance
1. 1, Women should be prohibited from economic competi
tion with men* 0- 5
2, 3. Pt is in the interests of society that there be a
distinct division of labor for men and w o m e n , 10
3* 5* A man should receive a higher salary than a woman
for identical work. 10
II, 7* The husband should make the final decision as to
how the family income should be spent. 0- $
8, Women are too emotional to make good medical
doctors. 0- 5
6, 9* Women should accept men ^ s decisions as to what
occupations they are best fitted for. 0- ^
7. ill-. ^ woman who continues to work outside the home
after marriage is neglecting her responsibility to
home and family. 10- l5
8. 22, The intellectual leadership of the community
should be largely in the hands of men. 0- 5
9, 23. Too much money is spent on professional training
for women. 0- ^
10. 29. Women should be guided by men as to the hours and
conditions under which they work. 0- 5
Total 10
These ten propositions are all conservative.
II, Domestic
1, 12, A woman should be required by law to take her
husband’s name at marriage, 30- 35
2, 13. The husband should reserve the right to decide on
all purchases before having to pay for them, 5- 10
77
Percentage
Original of
number acceptance
3. 16. If there is insufficient money for a higher edu
cation for both sons and daughters, all the avail
able money should be spent on the son * s
education. 0- 5
k. 17* Ihe '"obey" should be retained in the marriage
service as an appropriate part of the wife ^ s mar
riage vows. 10
k. 18. A married woman should perform her "conjugal duty"
at her husband^ s request regardless of her own
feelings in the matter. 0- 5
6. 20. When a woman marries she should expect all outside
interests to give way to her domestic obliga
tions , 5- 10
7. 31- ^ wife should be expected to keep herself charm
ing for her husband at all times. 35- kO
8. 38. Both v/omen and men should keep their ovm names
after marriage if they v/ish to do so. I|. 0- k5
9. 39» Ihe father should make the final decision in all
important matters concerning the upbringing of
the children. 0- 5
10. Ijii-. Ihe wife should be submissive to her husband
at all times. 0- 5
11. 7k* ^%en a vfoman marries she automatically obligates
herself to bear children. l5- 20
Total 11
Of the above propositions ten are conservative, one
liberal.
III. Political-legal
1. 26. The wife should be prevented by law from willing
any of her property av/ay from her husband. 0- 5
78
Percentage
Original of
number acceptance
2, 3I - ! - . ^t is in the interests of society that mothers
of illegitimate children should be required to
take full financial responsibility for
them. 5- 10
3» 51• ^omen should be ineligible for public offices
involving heavy civic or national responsi
bility. 5-' 10
1 | . . 59. The husband should be empowered by law to dis
pose of family property as he deems in the best
interests of the family. 0- 5
5* 61. The father should have preference as the legal
guardian of a minor child. 0- 5
6. 6^, Police duty should be restricted to men. 0- 5
7. 67. The father should have more claim to the earnings
of a minor child than the mother. 0- 5
8. 71* Ihe husband should be permitted special grounds
for divorce which are not available for the
wife. 0- 5
9. 73« ^ woman should be required by law to accept
her husband* s nationality. • 0- 5
10. 78. Ti^ere should be special laws defining the
hours and v/orking conditions for women which may
differ from those applying to men. I]-5- 50
Total 10
The above ten propositions are all conservative.
IV. Conduct and social
1. 37. It is in the interests of society for a woman to
be the "clinging vine" type of person, 0- 5
2, I|3 • It is more objectionable for a woman to swear
than it is for a man. 3$-
79
Percentage
Original of
number acceptance
3. Ll7 . *Pb.e unmarried mother should be censured more
severely than the unmarried father* 0- 5
k. ^2. It is no more objectionable to hear questionable
language used by a woman than by a man, 3?- I { . 0
5* 57* Women should take the passive role in court
ship. ' 10- Ig
6. $8. Women should be guided by men * s views as to
decorum and decency in dress. k- 10
7. 60. Pt is appropriate that tradition and custom
have provided a somewhat different standard for
men than that provided for women* 10- ik
8, 68, Training for the social and intellectual lead
ership of community affairs should be largely
restricted to men, 0- 5
9, 72* There should be a distinction between men * s and
women^s sports. 35- kO
10. 79. legislation protecting women is more greatly
needed than similar laws for men, kO- k5
11. 80. Men are superior to women intellectually, 0- 5
Total 11
The above propositions, consist of ten conservative
and one liberal,
Out of the forty-two propositions listed above,
forty are conservative, two liberal. The latter two,
numbers 38 and 52 read as follows :
38. Both men and women should keep their names after
marriage if they wish to do so,
52. It is no more objectionable to hear questionable
80
language used by a woman than by a man.
Number 38 was accepted by L | . 0 per cent of the respondents.
Number 52 was accepted by 39 per cent.
^t was felt that pertinent.comments made by the
respondents would shed-light on their reasons for checking
certain propositions as they did. This applied particul
arly where both the liberal and the conservative response
totals were high.
Marginal notes and footnotes explaining the non-
acceptance of number 38, a liberal proposition, were summed
up in these relevant remarks : (l) Complicates things
in case of children; (2) legal angle involvements; (3)
husband * s ego generally makes It desirable to take his
name in our culture.
Explanations regarding liberal proposition number
52 were summarised in the following : (l) Pure prejudice
on my part, but vulgarity in women disgusts me ; (2) if
it means lowering the tone of both sexes it is more objec
tionable; (3) on a logical basis true; on a personal one,
false.
It was interesting to find that numbers 12 and i|_3^
the conservative propositions on the same issues were accepted
by 30 to 35 per cent and 35 to 1 { . 0 per cent respectively, of
those replying. They read:
8l
12, A woman should be required by law to take her
husband*s name at marriage.
k-3 • ^t is more objectionable for a woman to swear
than it is for a man.
"^he former was accepted by 30 per cent and the latter
by 36 per cent.
Approximately 10 per cent more of the respondents
agreed with the liberal proposition on the issue of retention
of name after marriage than agreed with the conservative,
although both dropped below per cent.
Two per cent more agreed with the liberal proposition
regarding objectionable language, although once again both
dropped below the 50 per cent mark.
Numbers 69 and 78, a liberal and a conservative state
ment respectively on the political-legal issue of guardian-:
ship, each received a considerable number of checks. Of the
two the first :
69. Legal restrictions affecting minimum hours and
conditions of employment should, be uniform for
both women and men.
was accepted by 53 per cent, while the second:
78. Tfiere should be special laws defining the hours
and working conditions for women y/hich may
differ from those applying to men.
Y/as accepted by I ; . ? per cent of the respondents.
The following comments were typical: (l) Only such
as are in the interests of children, as maternity laws ; (2)
still necessary I (3) to protect women against certain
82
unmoral men; (II) sorae protection needed for those less
physically strong.
•^'■hmibers Ll2 and 79? a liberal and a conservative
proposition on the social issue of freedom from regulation,
reading respectively:
Ij-2, All laws and social requirements should be
uniform for women and men.
79. Legislation protecting women is more greatly
needed than similar lav;s for men.
were accepted by 71 per cent and k5 per cent and brought
forth the following typical remarks : (l) Pregnancy must
be recognized; (2) necessary at present in our culture;
(3) probably some additional safeguards desirable when
child bearing is involved.
Propositions 5 1 ] - and 72, the liberal and conservative
propositions respectively on the social issue of recreation
read as follows:
51 ] - . Any form of athletic activity should be open to
women who care to participate.
72. Lp^ere should be a distinction between men* s and
women * s sports.
Lhey were accepted by 70 per cent and 36 per cent of the
total group and drew such typical comments as : (l) perhaps
to some extent, especially in degree .of competition; (2)
on physical basis; (3) for reasons of health; (Ii.) if health
permits, L see no reason why she should not participate in
so-called masculine sports.
83
Numbers 31 and [ j . 8 on the domestic issue of personal
charm were accepted by 37 per cent and 79 per cent respec
tively :
.31. ^ wife should be expected to keep herself
charming for her husband at all times.
Il-8, A man is no more justified in expecting his wife
to be charming at all times than she is justi
fied in expecting him to be.
ï*he following comments summarised the consensus : (l) She
should keep herself charming whenever possible for the sake
of her own self-respect; (2) they both should; (3) it is
impossible to be charming at all times, but a pleasant
home is a goal to be striven for; (IjJ not mutually exclusive.
Another pair of propositions which gave rise to con
siderable comment were numbers pO and JU- in the domestic
category, reading:
50. Married women should not feel duty-bound to bear
children against their wishes.
7l-i-. When a woman marries she automatically/ obligates
herself to bear children.
These were accepted by 57 and 19 per cent, respectively. The
following comments were typical: (1) %f physically fit,
childbearing is a responsibility rather than an obligation;
(2) within reason; (3) unless there is a previous understanding;
(Li) a cooperative undertaking.
No conservative proposition was accepted by ^0 per cent
or more of those replying to the questionnaire.
8k
1'he total replies were broken dov/n Into men* s and
women * s and the difference in the amount of agreement be -
tween them was clearly brought out by a rank order correla
tion, and a computation of the coefficient of correlation
between percentages of agreement was sho.wn in Table VIII.
Rank order coefficient of correlation between percen
tages of. agreement to the separate propositions of the
questionnaire. In the first column of Table VIII the pro
positions were listed in order of amount of agree :ient. shov/n
by the men respondents from high to low, the one having the
greatest percentage of agreement being listed as number one
and that having the least as number eighty. In the third
column was listed the rank order of women’s agreement to the
proposition in column one. For example, 99 per cent of the
men agreed with number 28 and 98 per cent of the women agreed
with it, ^he highest women * s agreement was to proposition
21 with a percentage of 99* Tbe difference between the men’s
and women’s rank order of agreement was found and squared,
and the rank order coefficient computed.
The‘Spearman rank order coefficient of correlation
between men’s and v/ornen’s responses v/as .97 which is con
ventionally very reliable, that is, there is good evidence
of close correspondence between rankings of men and women
respondents on the question of equal status rights,
8g
TABLE V I I I
COEFFICIENT OF CORRELATION BETWEEN PERCENTAGES OF AOREEmNT
TO THE SEPARATE:PROPOSITIONS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Original
number
Hank
Men
order
Women
Original
number
Rank
Men
order
Women
28 1 2 12
f | 3 - %7
21 2
1 72
k2 k5
7 k3 k3 m
k
k
52
kk
k2
5
12
31 k5 53
36 6
3
38 k6 39
32
7
6
ik
k? 5o
19
8 8
7k
k8 k6
3$ 9 11 60 k9 k-9
11 10
9 3
50
4
63 11
17 20
51
2 12
13 5
52 66
75 13
Ik
7 53 67
6
ik
16
17 5k
56
15 25 5i 55 53
16
19 57
56
77 17
10
3k 57 6k
i l - 9
18 21 58 58
20
19
18
13 59 51
2k 20
15
16 60 62
21 22 22 61 72
ok 22
5
61 62
63
15 23 20
65 63 57
2k 31 73 6k 77
70
25
28 8
65
66
26 36
67
66 60
k8
27
26
59
67 69
k2 28 32
1 68 61
62
29 27 k7
69
56 30 29 26 70 6k
66
31 2k
18
71
58
5k
32 30 68 72 78
10
33 ' 23 39 73
76
k6 ■
3k- 33 23 7k
79
ko
35
29
75
80
27 36
3 k
80 76 71
50 37 37 71 77 75
69
38 38
37
78
7k
78
39 kO
kk
79
70
79
ko
• ia
9
80 72
Spearman rank order coefficient, p ■ .97
86
The item having the greatest difference in amount
of acceptance between men and women was economic proposition
number 6Ip which read:
There should be equal pay for equal work regardless
of the sex of the workers.
The men’s responses had ranked this item twenty-second,
whereas the women’s had given it fifth place, a difference
of seventeen. Remarks by the men could be summed up by one
which read, ' ’It’s pretty hard for a man with a family to
support to see some sweet young thing with no one but herself
to look after getting the same salary,” The women’s summary
remark was : ”A woman without the satisfaction of home and
family should have other things to compensate for the lack.”
The items having the second greatest amounts of dis
agreement were numbers ^ and 7? accepted by k and 7 per
cent respectively, which read :
5* ^ man should receive a higher salary than a
woman for identical work.
7. The husband should make the final decision as to
how the family income should be spent.
It v/as interesting to note the consistency in difference
between items 6!p and one liberal and the other conserva
tive on the same issue. As for item 1, it appeared that many
men had indicated agreement with both the conservative and
the liberal propositions on the same issue, althougli far
more agreed with the liberal number 36 than the conservative
87
as indicated by a percentage agreement of as compared
wi th 7.7#
Number 73 and number I8, with the third greatest
difference in agreement read:
73. ^ woman should be required by law to accept her
husband's nationality,
18. - A . married woman should perform her "con jugal
duty" at her husband's request regardless of her
own feelings in the matter.
Five per cent of the men agreed, with number 73 as compared
with 1 per cent of the women. -A.greernent of the men with
the liberal proposition number LlI on the same issue was
8lq, while that of the women was 91 per cent. fhere was less
difference in agreement on number L |. l, partly accounted, for by
the fact that some of the respondents agreed v/ith both
propositions.
^he same thing applied in the case of number I8, the
conservative proposition on the issue of marital relation
ship, as compared with number I1 . 6, the liberal one on the same
issue. Of the male respondents, 2 per cent indicated agree
ment with number I8, as compared with 1j. per cent of the
women v.ho did so. ^ixty-four per cent of the men agreed
with the liberal proposition that married women should have
full control of their persona, while 66 per cent of the
women did so. fhe consensus of comment was that the marital
relationship was a cooperative matter.
88
Item number 22, whicl'i follows:
The intellectual leadership of the community should
be largely in the hands of men,
showed the fourth greatest amount of disagreement. ^ ’ ^any
educators had accepted the fact that the intellectual capa
city of women entitled them to full equality with men in
the administration of public affairs (85 per cent with but
a slight difference between men and v/oiuen, ) but they also
accepted the traditional attitude that intellectual leader
ship should be largely in the hands of men. Ihe total
acceptance of 3 per cent shov/ed a breakdown of 5 per cent men
and 1 per cent women.
Numbers ?6, k?, 10, and p3 ranlced fifth in amount of
disagreement, Ntimber j6:
Ihere should'be a single standard in sex matters for
women and men,
showed a greater percentage of liberality for the men, Kirk
patrick suggested that the reason for this v/as that the men
had more to gain from such a cultural attitude. It was
interesting to note that number l \ . 7 , the conservative proposi-
tion on the s ame 1ssue :
The unmarried mother should be censured more severely
than the unmarried father,
also ranked fifth and showed a direct reversal of acceptance
as between men o.nd ^-omen, K greater number of men were
liberally inclined toward p-reater sex freedom, but a greater
number were also inclined to censure the unmarried mother
89
more severely than the unmarried father as a result of that
freedom«
Number 10 :
Ihe relative amounts of time spent on home duties and
- on one * s career should bed etermined by personal
preference rather than by sex.
provoked more disagreement than its conservative counter
part , number l I i . on the same issue. Remarks indicated that
those making them accepted the traditional attitude that
"woman's p]a ce is in the home," personal preference and
aptitude to the c ontrary. Conservative proposition 1) 4:
A woman who continues to work outside the home after
marriage is neglecting her responsibility to home
and family.
was more readily accepted. "typical responses were: (l)
Che may be in the present set-up; (2) not necessarily.
Liberal proposition number 53*
Married women should struggle against becoming domes-
- tic servants.
produced a higher percentage of agreement from the women
than from the men. Comments indicated that the same
reasoning as for number 10 above applied.
Lo number 20 :
%ien a woman marries she should expect all outside
interests to give way to her domestic obligations.
the few comments were about equally divided betv/een those
who agreed with the statement, and those who did not.
9 0
Numbers 5? and L l i . ranked next with a difference of
nine each. Number 57*
V^omen should take the passive role in courtship,
showed an agreement of 8 per cent for the men and 12 per
cent for the women, "^he women, in this instance, appeared
to be more affected by the culture pattern than did the men.
There was a little more unanimity of b ellef to number 2^,
the liberal proposition on the same issue, reading :
Tf a woman wishes to marry a man she should make
every effort within reason to do so.
although here too the men were more liberal as shovm by a
score of 78 per cent compared vmth the vromen’s of 66 per cent
Conservative proposition number
The v/ife should be submissive to her husband at all
times.
showed the men * s score to be more liberal, although the
percentage of acceptance was very low in both cases, namely
1 per cent for the men and 1 per cent for the women. Liberal
proposition number 19 on the same issue:
Marriage should:be a partnership in which there
should be no question of the submission of any one
partner.
received a closer percentage of agreement, as shovm by the
fact that it ranked eighth for both men and women in order
of acceptance,
Tterns number 13 and 9> both conservative, ranked
seventh with a difference of eight places in order of
9 1
acceptance between men and women* Number 13 read:
The husband should reserve the right to decide on
all purchases before having to pay for them*
Number 9*
Women should accept men's decisions as to what
occupations they are best fitted for*
Regarding the conservative proposition number 13, the men
appeared slightly more liberal, as shown by a percentage
score of 7 as compared to 7.3, although the liberal proposi
tion on the same issue, number 2 i | . :
Non-working married women should expect a regular
housekeeping and personal allotment as a necessary
part of home management, rather than as a favor *
showed the women to have a considerably higher liberal score,
namely 92 per cent, compared with 02 for the men*
The liberal proposition on the issue of independent
choice of occupation, number 28:
Every individual, regardless of sex, should be free
to choose his own vocation*
received greater unanimity of opinion, taking first place
with a percentage score of 99 for total agreement, first
place with the men and second 'with women*
The remaining propositions showed a closer corres
pondence of belief, the details of which may be observed, by
category, in Table IX* It is apparent that the liberal propos
itions had produced a closer agreement between men and women
than had the conservative*
TABLE IX
DIFFERENCES IE RANK ORDER
BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN PGR ITEMS GROUPED
BY LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE
Liberal Propositions
92
Political- Conduct and
Ecoïiomî c Domestic legal social
Order Prop.
Dlff
Prop. Dlff. Prop. Dlff. Prop. Dlff.
1. 2 1 11 1 21 1 7
2.
h k 19
0
27
2 k2
k
3.
o 2
2k 5
2 1
k*
10 10 32 1
ki 3 k9 3
5- 3
38
7 55 7
52 2
6. 28 1
ko 0
63 0 5k
2
7.
30 1 k6 1 66
7
56 1
8.
33 0 k8 1 69 0 62 2
9.
36
3
go 0
755
1 70
3
10. Ô I4 .
17 53
10
77 7
76 10
Total
k2 26 36
35
Conservative Propositions
Political- Conduct and
Economic Domestic legal social
Order Prop.
Dlff
Prop . Dlff. Prop.
Dlff. Prop. Dlff.
1. 1
7
12 6 26 6
37 k
2.
3
k
13
8
3k
7
1
3. g
ik 16 2
51
2
k7
10
1 - } - . 7 Ik 17
2
59
2
9
3.
8 1 18
13
61 1 58
6
6 . 9 8 20
k 65
6 60 0
7- 14 3 31
2
67
6 68 6
6. 22 11
39 3 71
2 72
3
9. 23 g - m 9 73 13
1
10. 29
5 7k
2 78 1 80
5
Total 72
51
k6
k5
93
Category differences. The greatest discrepancy
in amount of agreement in answer to the liberal proposi
tions was in the economic category^ see Table IX^ page-92,
a difference in rank order of forty-two. Kirkpatrick
found his greatest disagreement also among his University
of Minnesota students, in the economic field. The impli
cation seemed to be that, although in theory, educators
believed in the democratic equal rights status of women
and men, in the economic field where competition was
likely to affect man * s status, he was inclined to be less
liberal in his viev/point than woman.
The political-legal category ranked second in differ
ence in rank order placement of propositions between men
and women, with a difference of thirty-six. Once again,
although the male educator was liberal in his viewpoint, it
appeared that he was less likely to be as liberal as the
woman v/hen it came to including such equal status rights
in the laws of the land.
The conduct and social category ranked third in
difference of belief wi th a score of thirty-five, only
slightly behind the political-legal category. The domestic
category took fourth place with a rank order difference
of only twenty-six. There appeared to be less danger
of disagreement, as shown by the responses to the liberal
questions, between men and women in the domestic field than
9L
In any of the other three,
^he total agreement with the conservative propositions
was, on the whole, low; within this framework the conservative
category rank order differences varied s omewhat as compared
with the liberal, in that although the economic category
still ranked first, the domestic changed from fourth to
second pla.ce, % e three conservative items v/hich ha.d the
greatest rank order difference, and consequently influenced
the category placement most, were propositions l8, and
13 with a, difference of thirteen, nine, and eight respectively,
1'hese propositions read as follows :
18. A married woman should perform her "conjugal duty"
at her husband * s request regardless of her ovm
feelings in the matter,
I j Il, The wife should be submissive to her husband at
all times.
13. The husband should reserve the right to decide
on all purchases before having to pay for them,
-Apparently the men and women respondents were able
to accept the liberal propositions on the same issue with
greater mutuality, These read:
Ij-6,' tiarried women should have full control of their
persons and give or withhold sex intimacy as
they wish,
19. Marriage should be a partnership in which there
should be no question of the submission of any
one partner,
2 [ | . , Non-working married women should expect a re
gular housekeeping and personal allotment as
a necessary part of home management, rather
than as a favor.
9g
The political-legal category ranked third for the
conservative propositions, a rank order difference of
forty-six, and conduct and social last with a difference
of forty-five.
In every category the rank order agreement between
men and women for the liberal propositions was much closer
than it was for the conservative ones.
Summary. Questionnaires were returned by p26 univer
sity and college professors, secondary and elementary
teachers and administrators, librarians, superintendents,
and supervisors, and a miscellaneous group of educators
from all over the country. Total scores were computed and
tabulated according to liberality of score.
It was apparent that the leading educators of the
United States were inclined to be extremely liberal on
the question of equal status of women and men. % e amount
of liberality might have been more apparent than real for
reasons aforementionned, that is, in the limitations to
the survey* The total scores were broken down into men's
and women^s scores and a comparison made between the two,
with the result that the women’s scores showed a slightly
greater liberality than the men*s.
The propositions themselves were ranked in order of
percentage acceptance, so that it could be seen readily
wherein lay the greatest amount of agreement and disagreement
96
among the total educators. Tjie men * s and women* s scores
were then treated separately in the same way, and their
rank order coefficient of correlation computed. 5?he latter
was found to be exceedingly high,'a rho of * 97• Oomments
which seemed to throw light on the educators * reasons for
responding as they did were included, and discrepancies
were noted, F rom ^0 to 100 per cent of the total educator
group accepted thirty-eigiit items, all liberal, while less
than 50 per cent accepted forty-two items, two liberal and
forty conservative. ^ breakdown of propositions into
categories was undertaken in an effort to discover why this
was so.
The liberal and conservative propositions were each
classified in four categories, (l) economic, domestic,
(3O political-legal and il\.) conduct and social status, to
see in which fields^ lay the greatest amount of agreement and
of disagreement. J^t was found that to the liberal proposi
tions the greatest amount of agreement was in the domestic
field. The economic field ranked fourth, thereby showing
the greatest amount of disagreement, with political-legal
and conduct and social ranking third andsecond respectively;
that is, the two fields in which there was the greatest
amount of disagreement were the economic and the political-
legal.
The responses to the conservative propositbons showed
97
the conduct and social category to have the greatest amount
of agreement and the economic to have the least, ^he
political-legal category ranlced second and the domestic
came a close third. As with the liberal propositions, the
greatest amount of disagreement was associated with the
economic and political-legal propositions. In every cate
gory the agreement between the men and the women was
closer in response to the liberal propositions of each
pair than it was to the conservative*
CHAPTER V
GEOGRAPHIC AREA AND BELIEFS OF LEADING EDUCATORS
The preced5.hg chapter discussed the questionnaire,
the educators questioned, and the distribution and differ
ences in their scores in general. The present chapter
concentrates on a comparison of the scores of the respond
ents from the different geographical areas of the country.
Combined scores were grouped into separate scores for
men and women and these were compared within each area.
dumber and distribution of replies within the
different geographical areas of the United States. The
country was divided into five geographical areas as shown
in Table I, page 30. These were the Middle States, New
England, North Central States, Western States and the
Southern States. Tj^e educator scores from each area were
tabulated, first the total scores, then the men's and
women's separately. The respondents of the Middle States
returned lp8, or 21 per cent of the total number of ques
tionnaires returned. Nev/ England's returns were 87, or
9 per cent. North Central’s were the largest v#ith 377
questionnaires, or Ip. per cent of the total number returned,
The Western States' returns were 11^, or 12 percent, and
the Southern States' were llj-Pj or 16 per cent of the total
926 questionnaires. These totals were sufficiently large
99
to give a representative sampling from each of the five
geographical areas.
P'eo.granhlcal area versus liberal score. Table X
presents the geographical areas and the score made by each
area. The Hevf England States ranked first in liberality of
score with a mean of 70.3, a median of 71*3, a third quar-
tile of 7i]-*l and a first quartile of 68.2. The Southern
States ranked fifth with a mean score of 66, a median of
67 * 1 » a third quartile of 7% and a first quartile of
62.5* The Western, the Middle States, and the North Central
States ranked second, third and fourth with means of 69.6,
66.9, and 68.1, and medians of 70.6, and 69.8 res
pectively.
Significant differences. Table XI, page 1 0 1, the
t-ratio table, showed no significant differance between the
scores of the Middle States and the New England States, none
between the Middle and the North Central States, none
between the Middle and the Western States, but a difference,
which was significant at the 1 per cent level between the
Middle and the Southern States. This Indicated that there
was a true difference and not one due to sampling errors
between the two, or that the true difference in belief be
tween the Middle and the Southern States was greater than
zero. The obtained difference was large enough to predict
TABLE X
D ISTR IBU TIO N OF LIBER AL SCORES FOR
THE TOTAL EDUCATOR GROUP BY GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
100
Middle
States
New
England
North
Central Western Southern
Score Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency
78-80
75-77
72-71)-
69-71
66-08
63-65
60-62
57-59
5I).-56
51-53
I1 . 8-50
L5-L7
q.2-]^.
39-41
36-38
33-35
23
22
31
31
11
8
9
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
14.
26
21
i
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
28
53
6k
II
23
14.
11
3
0
k
1
1
0
5
21
3Î 4 -
20
20
20
7
1
2
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
11
19
23
29
21
12
6
I
1
1
0
0
1
Total 194- 89 369
132
ikh
General mean 67.0 70.0 67.0 67.0
6 1 ) . . 0
^ean
68.9 70.3
68.1 69.6 66.0
Standard
deviation
7.1
5.8
8.0 5.6 7.8
Standard error
of the mean
.5 .
.6
.1) .5
.6
Median 69.5 71.3
69.8 70.6 67.0
Third quart!le 7U2 74-.!
7I 1..0 73.9 71.1).
First quartile 63.1 ) . 68,2
63.3
65.6 62.5
101
TABLE X I
t-R A T IO TABLE FOR S IG N IFIC A N T DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN GEOGRAPEIG AREAS FOR TOTAL SCORES
Standard
Area Mean error of the Number
mean
Middle States
68.9 • 5 ipit-
New England 70.3 .6
89
North Central 68.1
.k 369
Western 69.6 132
Southern 66.0 .6 l l l i ) .
Total 928
New North
Area England Central Western Sou then
Middle States
-1.7 1.1 -1.1
3.f
New England 2.9* .8
1+.7*
North Central -2.1 4 .^
3.7*
Western
1 +.)+=^
Significant at 1 per cent level
Significant at 5 per cent level
^ n h fe rs ih y of S outhern Cafifom ra L IB r lÿ
102
that in 99 chances out of 1 - 0 0 the mean score for the
Middle States in another such study would be greater than
the mean score for the Southern States.
^here was a significant difference, at the 1 per cent
level also, between the ^ew England and the Southern States,
between the Western and Southern States and between the
^ew %igland and the ^orth Central States.
There was a significant difference too, but at the
5 per cent level, between the North Central and the Western
States. %is was large enough to predict that about 95
times in 1 0 0 a similar group of educators from the West
ern States would show a mean liberal score larger than a similar
group from the North ^entrai States.
The difference in score between the Middle and New
England States was not significant, neither was that between
the Middle and North Central States, the Middle and Western
States, nor the New England and Western States, ^his indi
cated that the differences between the mean scores of these
four geographical groups were slight, or that they might
have been due to sampling errors.
Thus, it was inferred that the respondents from the
Southern States were inclined to be the least liberal
minded of the educators from the five geographical areas.
The responses from the New England States showed the
most liberal score, with the Western, the Middle States, and
103
the North Central ranking second, third and fourth res
pectively,
A comparison of men* s and women * s liberal scores for
the five preoRraphical areas. Table XII presents the men * s
scores for the five geographical areas tabulated separately.
Although men respondents from the New I^ngland States
ranked highest in mean liberal score, the score was smaller
than the total score by 1,2. The Middle States ranked
second, taking the place of the Western States for the
total score, but with a smaller mean score than either the
Western or the Middle States, The Western States ranked
third with a mean score only ,2 less than that for the
Middle States, Tj^e North Central States ranked fourth for
both the total and the men’s groups but with a difference of
1,2 in favor of the total group. The Southern States
came last for both groups with a difference in mean score
of 1,7 in favor of the total group.
In Table XIII, page 10^, the t-ratio table shows the
significant differences between the men’s scores for the
different geographical areas, Tjxere were significant differ
ences between the scores of the Western and the Southern
States, the North Sastern and the Southern and between the
Middle and the Southern States at the 1 per cent level, As
previously explained, this indicated that there was undoubted
ly a true difference; that is, there are 99 chances in 1 00
lOii-
TABLE X I I
DISTRIBUTION OF LIBERAL SCORES FOR
THE MEN'S EDUCATOR GROUP BY GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
Middle Hew North
States England Central Western Southern
Score Fre quency Frequency Frequency Fre quency Frequency
78-80
9 3 Ik
0 1
7^-77, 7
8 18
9
6
72-7W 1 . 11 I | . 29
?
Q
69-71 17
11 32 l l } -
66-66 10 6
25 9 15
63-65 Id
4
20
13
10
60—62 6
3 17 gg
7
57-59
6 2
Ig
0
k
5i+-56
k
1 10 2
7
51-53
0 1 6 1
5. 8-50 0 0 1 0
3
I 4 . 5-L7
1 0 0 0 1
l i - 2-jlj- 1 0
3
0 1
39-5i
0 0 0 0 0
36-38 0 0 1 0 0
33-35
0 0 0
0 1
Total 82
k3 191
$2
83
General mean 67.0 67.0 6I 4..0 67.0 614- . 0
Mean
67.9 69 66.9
67.8
6I 4..3
Standard
deviation 7.6 6*5
8.1 6.0 8.6
Standard error,
of the mean .8 1.0 .6
.8 1.0
Median 68*0
69.7
68,2 66.6 66.2
Third quartile
73.3
7l | . . 6
72.9
72.2 70.5
First quartile 63*2
65.3
61.6 63.6
59.3
TABLE XIII
t-RATIO TABLE FOR SIONIFIGANT DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN GEOGRAPHIC AREAS FOR ŒN^S SCORES
10$
Standard
Area
Mean error of the Number
mean
Middle States
67.9
.8 82
New England
69.1 1.0
k3
North Central 66.9 .6
191
Western 67.8 • 8 52
Southern
6I 1.3 1.0
83
Total
New North
Area England Central Western Southern
Middle States
.9
—1.0 — .03 -2.8*
New England
-1.9 -1.0
-3.5*
North Central
- .9 2.3^
Western 2.7^
* Significant at 1 per cent level
^ Significant at $ per cent level
106
that the mean scores of the Western, the New England, and
the Middle States would be greater than that of the Southern
States In another such study made at approximately the same
time, "^here was a significant difference between the mean
scores of the North Central and the Southern States at the
5 per cent level. In other words, there were ,95 chances in
1,00 that the mean liberal score of the North Central States
would be found to be greater than that of the Southern
States in subsequent studies*
Table XIV presents the distribution of liberal scores
for the women educator group by geographical areas• %e
mean score of the women was, in each case, higher than the
comparable score of the total group, or of the men. The
rank order of the different geographical areas was the same
as that of the total group scores,
Table XV, page 108, shows significant differences at
the 1 per cent level between the New England and the Southern
States and between the Western and the Southern Spates.
The difference between the New England and North Central
States was at the 5 per cent level, indicating that the
differences were probably reliable and not due to sampling
errors.
Summary. The conclusions drawn from the findings in
this chapter were based on the assumption that the sampling
was adequate. The evidence indicated that, although the
107
TABLE X IV
D ISTR IBU TIO N OF LIBER AL SCORES FOR
THE WOMEN'S EDUCATOR GROUP BY GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
78-80
75-77
72-7I + .
69-71
66-68
63-65
60-62
I t s
W - Ï 7
39-I|A
Total
New
England
North.
Central States England Central Western Southern
Score Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency
^k
Ig
20
ik
20
16
5
2
5
0
1
0
0
0
112
2
6
22
10
11
0
2
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
k6
iJq
3?
35
39
11
Ik
I
1
2
0
1
1
178
5
12
ÎI
11
7
2
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
80
I
10
1
11
5
2
0
0
1
0
0
0
61
General mean 67.0 70.0
67.0 70.0 67.0
Mean 69.6
71.l1 .
69.1 4 .
70.9
68,3
Standard
deviation 6.6
14..9 7.4
5.0 5.8
Standard error
of the mean .6
.7
.6 .6 .8
Median 70.0 72.i j .
71.1 71.7
■ 68.0
Third quartile 711..6 711-.0
74.9
74.2
72.6
First quartile
65. i i -
70.2 65.6 68.0
64.5
108
TABLE XV
t-R A T IO TABLE FOR S IG N IFIC A N T DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN GEOGRAPHIC AREAS FOR WOimN'S SCORES
Area Mean
Standard
error of the
mean
Number
Middle States 69.6 .6 112
New England
71.i i . .7
i i , 6
North Central
69.U- .6 178
Western
70.9
.6 80
Southern
68.3
.8
Total
61
L77
Area
New
England
North
Central Western Southen
Middle States
-1.9
.2 -1.7
1.3
New England 2.1^ .6 2.9^
North Central —1 * 8 1.2
Western
2.7^'-
Significant at 1 per cent level
Significant at $ per cent level
109
total mean scores were consistently liberal, the women
educators showed a more liberal score in each of the geo
graphical areas than did the men. ^his was in line v/ith
what might have been expected in view of the fact that these
highly educated women respondents had more of a vested in
terest in the equal status problem and more personal ex
perience with such inequalities as might exist than had the
male.
^he data seemed to suggest that there was little
doubt that place of residence in a particular geographical
area of the ^nited States was a significant factor in
predicting the probable liberality of belief that educators
were likely to hold to many of the equal status issues
confronting the social order of today. It also revealed
that the educators of the New ^ngland States were probably,
slightly to considerably, more tolerant and progressive
than were those of other areas, and that the women were
slightly to decidedly more progressive than were the men.
^his applied to the other areas of the ^nited States in the
following order: (2) Western, (3) ^^iddle States, ( I j . )
North Central, and ($) Southern States,
CHAPTER VI
AGE AND BELIEF OF LEADING EDUCATORS
The preceding chapter discussed the beliefs of the
leading educators in relation to the geographical area in
which they lived. The present chapter discusses the age
of the respondents in relation to the liberality of their
replies, first for the total scores and then for men and
women separately.
Number and distribution of total scores according
to age groups. The educators were divided into four groups
according to the age given by the respondent on the personal
data sheet of the questionnaire. Only 906 replies were used
in this tabulation, as twenty respondents had neglected to
state their ages. The groups were arbitrarily fixed at:
(l) sixty years and over, (2) fifty to fifty-nine years,
(3) forty to forty-nine years, and ( I f . ) thirty-nine years
and less. The age range was from thirty-two to sixty-six
years. The replies numbered l65 for the first group, I i l j . 8 for
the second, 220 for the third, and 73 for the fourth group.
The sampling could therefore be considered sufficient
for statistical analyses except perhaps for the thirty-nine
and less age group.
It will be recalled that an effort was made to limit
Ill
the uppej? age bracket to sixty-five for certain practical
reasons, namely because there was more chance of locating
the practicing educator than the retired one, and less
chances that death had Intervened since the publication
in 1914*1 of Cattell’s names of leading educators. Ho replies
were received from educators in their twenties, since few,
if any, had reached the status of leading educators by that
age. ^his, coupled with the fact that the volume from
which the names were taken was published in 19^1 has
made the frequencies greater toward the upper end. The
majority of the replies received were from educators in
the fifty to fifty-nine year age group as indicated in
Table XVI.
^ comnarison of total liberal scores, according to
a^e croups. It is generally assumed that the older a per
son grows the more conservative that person tends to be
come. T]^is belief has never been made the object of
scientific study, and although it might operate generally,
certain cultural trends mi^t tend to counter-balance it.
' In the present study, for the total group the mean
liberal score of 68.9, as Indicated in Table XVI, was
'hi^iest for the age sixty and over group. The fifty to
fifty-nine group ranked second with a score of 68.7, the
thirty-nine and less third with 68, and the forty to forty-
nine lowest with a score of 67. That is, the middle-aged
112
TABLE XVI
DISTRIBUTION OF LIBERAL SCORES FOR
THE TOTAL EDUCATOR GROUP BY AGE
60 and over
4o-49
39 and less
Score Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency
78-80 12
32 12 5
75-77 20
69
20 11
‘ 72-74 33
12
69-71 32 78
35 13
66-68
19 34
10
63-65 28
45 23
8
60-62
9 32
17 3
57-59 2 22
13 5
54-56
5 14
10
3
51-53 I } - 6 6 0
M -50 0 2
5
2
45-47
0 1 2 0
42-k4
1
5
0 0
39-41
0 1 0 0
36-38 0 0 1 0
33-35
0 0 0 1
Total 16$
W
220 73
General mean 67.0 67.0 67.0 67.0
Mean
68.9
68.7 67.0 68.1
Standard
deviation 6.6
7.3
7.8 8.2
Standard error '
of the mean
.5
.5 1.0
Median
69.9
70.0 68.4 69.5
Third quartile
73.7 73.1 72.9 73.9
First quartlie
64.7 64*4
62.6 64.1
113
group, forty to forty-nine, showed the least liberality
and the older group, sixty years and over, the greatest.
Significant differences. Table XVII, a t-ratio
table, shows the significant differences between these
total age groups, Tj^e only ones showing such differences
were the s ixty and over versus the forty to forty-nine
groups, and the fifty to fifty-nine versus the forty to
forty-nine groups, the differences being significant at
the 1 per cent level. In other words, there are 99 chances
in 1 0 0 that in another study of this kind made at approx
imately the same time, the sixty year and over group would
be more liberal than the forty to forty-nine year olds,
and the fifty to fifty-nine group would make more liberal
scores than the forty to forty-nine year olds. The differ
ence was apparently a true one and not due to sampling errors.
A comparison of women*s liberal scores for the
different age ecroups. The women’s scores alone. Table
XVIII, page 11$, showed the same tendency as the total
scores, but with the thirty-nine year olds and less ranking
last, instead of third as for the combined group, ^he sixty
and over group had a mean liberal score of 7 0.2, the
fifty to fifty-nine group ranked a close second with 7 0,
the forty to forty-nine third with a score of 6 9.8, and
the thirty-nine and less came last with a mean score of 6 8.
Ilf).
TABLE X V II
t-R A T IO TABLE FOR S IG N IFIC A N T DIFFEREI^CES
IN AGE FOR TOTAL SCORES
Standard
Age
Mean error of the
mean
KijBiber
60 and over 6 8 .9
. 165
50-59 68.7 .h
1)48
6 7 .0
.5
220
39 and less 6 8 .1 1 . 0
73
Total 906
Age I | . 0 - l | . 9 39 and less
6 0 and over
•k
2.6* .8
50-59
2.7* .6
ko-h9 -.9
Significant at 1 per cent level
llg
TABLE X V I I I
DISTRIBUTION OF LIBERAL SCORES FOR
THE W01.1EN«S EDUCATOR GROUP BY AGE
60 and over
$0-59 . 1 - 1 - 0 -I4 . 9
39 and less
Score Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency
78-80 8 20
5 3
75-77 llq
13
2
72-7lj. 29 li6
25 9
69-71
18 1|0 16 8
66-68
13
26 12
I 4 .
63-65 10 22 11 5
60-62
5
10
k
1
57-59
1
7 5 3
54-^6 1 6 0 1
^1-53 3
1 0 0
1^8-50 0 1 1 2
L5-L7 0 0 0 0
il.2-^ 0 1 0 0
39-iia 0 1 0 0
Total 102
223
92 38
General mean 70.0 70.0 67.0 67.0
Mean 70.2 70.0 69.8 68.0
Standard
deviation 6.0 6.7 5.8
T.k
Standard error
of the mean •6 • I j . .6 1.2
Median
71.5
71.2 70.9
69.2
Third quartile
7l)-.l 75.0 73.9
73.0
First quartile 66.8
66.3
66.0 61<..0
116
ïhe fact that the oldest group was the most liberal
may be partially explained by the fact that many of these
women may have taken part in the fight for women ^ s suffrage
from the 1 9 0 0*s on. They were therefore more conversant
with and more involved in the problem of equal political and
legal rights and the concomitant domestic, social and eco
nomic rights, as citizens of a democratic country. This
interpretation was implicit in many of the comments written
on the questionnaires by members of this age group. Such
comments included:
We are only now beginning to feel the results in
our state of many of the things we fought for before
we got the vote.
I was for many years in Washington, D,G. working on
this problem. It takes time.
Younger women have forgotten that such a problem as
having to fight even for the vote, not to mention other
things, ever existed.
Ho comments of this nature were made by women of the
thirty-nine and less group. It may have been that, having
received the vote, and having gained equality of status in
many fields the problem was not of paramount importance to
these younger women.
Although the thirty-nine and less group dropped 2.2
points below the mean of the sixty and over group. Table
XIX shows no significant differences between any of the groups
As there were only 3 8 women in this group and 35 men in the
117
TABLE X IX
t-R Â T iO TABLE FOR S IG N IFIC A N T DIFFERENCES
IN AGE FOR WOMEN'S SCORES
Standard
Age Mean error of the Nnmber
mean
60 and over 70.2 .6 102
50-59 70.0
. 1 4 -
223
l+O-ij-P 69.8 .6 92
39 and less 66.0 1.2 38
Total
455
Age
$0-^9 kO-k9 39
and less
60 and over .2
.5
1.6
50-59 .3
1.6
W-I4 . 9 1.3
No significant differences
118
corresponding men’s group there is some question as to
the reliability of the findings.
A comparison of men’s liberal scores for the different
a.R_e groups. Table XX displays the differences among the
men’s .age groups as to liberality of score* It is interesting
to note that the youngest group among the men correspondents,
that is, the thirty-nine and less group, had the most liberal
score of the four with a mean of 68*2. The fifty to fifty-
nine year olds ranked second with a score of 6 j the oldest
group came third with 66*9, while the forty to forty-nine
year olds ranked last with a mean score of 6$.1?*
Table XXI, page 120, Indicates a significant differ
ence only between the fifty to fifty-nine and the forty to
forty-nine age groups, and that at the 5 per cent level,
indicating that in another such s tudy the chances would be
995 in 1,000 that the fifty to fifty-nine group would again
prove to have made i more liberal score.
Differences between men’s and women’s mean liberal
scores for the apce groups,. Only one of the men*s groups,
that is, the thirty-nine and less with its mean score of 68*2,
exceeded any women’s group in liberality of score, the one
exceeded being also the thirty-nine and less group with its
mean of 68* ^he other three women’s groups exceeded the
other three men’s in varying degrees, although both sexes
119
TABLE XX
DISTRIBUTION OF LIBERAL SCORES FOR
THE ÎŒN'S EDUCATOR OR OU? BY AGE
60 and over
50-59 ko—k9
39 and less
Score Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency
78-80
k
12
7
2
75-77 6 27 7 9
72-7I J - k 39 17 3
69-71 ik 38
19 5
66-68 0
30 22 6
63-65 18 23
12
3
60-62
k
22
13
2
57-59 1
15
8 2
5ii--56
k
8 10
2
51-53 1
5
6 0
# . 8-50 0 1
k
0
L5-k7 0 1 2 0
!+2-m 1
k
0 0
39- w 0 0 0 0
36-38 0 0 1 0
33-35
0 0 0 1
Total
63
225 128
35
General mean 6k.o 67.0 6k. 0 67
Mean 66*9
67.k
65.2 68,
Standard
deviation 6.5
Standard error
of the mean .8
Median 66*8
Third quartîle 71.1
First quart!le 63 *3
7.6
.5
65.8
73.2
62*5
8 .1|.
.7
66*6
71.3
59.7
8.9
1.5
69.I j -
75.2
6k* 2
120
TABLE X X I
t-R A T IO TABLE FOR S IG H IP iC A N l’ DIFFERENCES
IN AGE FOR MEN'S SCORES
Standard
Age
Mean error of the
mean
Number
60 and over 66*9 .8 63
5 0 -5 9 67. i l -
22g
W-I1 . 9
65.2
.7
128
39 and less 68.2
1.5 35
Total
k-51
Age
50-59 I 1 .O-I1 . 9 39 and less
60 and over -.5
50-59
kO-k9
1.6 -.8
2.5** -.5
— 1.8
Significant at 5 per cent level
121
showed extreme liberality of score.
It seems reasonable to assume that this difference may
be explained (l) by an evolving culture pattern which is
becoming less paternalistic and more democratic in outlook,
and (2) by the fact that, to the average person, the woman
would appear to have more to gain in a society where the
sexes had equality of status, as compared with her subser
vient economic, political and legal position of past years,
Summary. A total of 906 out of the 9^6 educators
responding answered the question dealing with age, the
range being from thirty-two to sixty-six years, ^he res
pondents were divided into four age groups : (l) the sixty
and over, (2) the fifty to fifty-nine, (3 ) the forty to
forty-nine, and (iq) the thirty and less groups, ^he means,
medians, and first and third quartile scores were tabulated
for each group, first for the total group and then for the
men and women separately.
Ihe total group tabulation showed the sixty and over
group to be the most liberal, the fifty to fifty-nine second,
the thirty-nine and less third, and the forty to forty-nine’s
the lowest in liberal score ranlcing, ^he differences in
mean scores proved to be dgnificant at the 1 per cent level
between the sixty and over and the forty to forty-nine
groups, and b etween the fifty to fifty-nine and the forty to
forty-n&B age groups.
122
ïlie women’s mean scores showed liberality in the
following rank order: ^irst, the sixty and over; second,
the fifty to fifty-nine group; third, the forty to forty-
nine; and fourth, the thirty-nine and less. There were no
significant differences between the means of these groups.
The men’s means showed the following ranlc in liber
ality of score: First, the thirty-nine and less; second,
the fifty to fifty-nine group; third, the sixty and over;
and fourth, the forty to forty-nine year old group. There
proved to be a significant difference between the fifty to
fifty-nine and the forty to forty-nine year old groups at
the 5 per cent level.
For the educators studied it appeared that age was a
factor of some significance in determining liberality of
belief on the equal status question, in spite of the fact
that sex appeared to have a greater bearing on score than
did age. Whereas the older women educators appeared to
have the more liberal beliefs on the matter, the younger men
proved to have more liberal scores than did the older ones.
The younger men were also found to be more liberal than
were the younger women, although in each of the other age
classifications the women’s scores were more liberal than
the men’s.
CHAPTER V I I
YEARS OF EDUCATION AND BELIEFS OF LEADING EDUCATORS
The previous chapter divided the total group and then
the men and the women respondents into four classifications
according to age, and discussed various aspects of liberal
ity of score according to those divisions. A comparison
of mean scores within the classifications was made for the
group as a whole, and then for the men’s and the women’s
groups separately. Other central tendency scores were also
compared and discussed,
^he present chapter divides the educators according
to number of years of education attained and discusses
liberality of belief within that framework*
dumber and distribution of total replies according:
t j ï
to years of education attained by the educators * ^or corn-
put ing the means, medians and quartile scores according
to number of years of education attained, the p22 total
responses were tabulated and liberal scores obtained. The
group was then broken down into three classifications
according to education* (l) Tj^os© who had received twenty
years of education or over, (2) those who had seventeen
to nineteen years inclusive, and {3 ) those who had sixteen
years or less.
12lj.
^lie responses to the question of education included
3 1 2 replies in the first group, ^1^3 in the second, and 67
in the third; of these I|. 7 5 were women*s and l { i | . 7 men*s. The
five geographical areas were represented, as were all of the
states of the union* Each of the classifications was large
enough for statistical analysis with the possible exception
of the sixteen years and less group, and there was a suffi
cient number there to make comparisons interesting.
A comparison of total liberal scores according to
amount of education attained. The findings regarding the
central tendency scores were according to expectation,
that is, the more education people have the more liberal
they are inclined to be. As shown in Table XXII, respondents
having an education of twenty years or over, those with
doctorates, masters, or the equivalent, were found to have
a mean liberal score of 6 9.1, a median of 7 0.8, a third
quartile score of 7h*39 and a first of 65. The raw scores
ranged from eighty, the most liberal possible, dov/n to a
low of thirty-six.
%n the second classification, the seventeen to nine
teen *s, those with masters, bachelors, plus special certi
ficates, bachelors, or the near equivalent, were found to
have a mean score of 6 8.2, a median of 6 9, a third quartile
score of 7 3.< and a first of 6 1, The raw scores ranged from
a high of eighty to a low of thirty-nine, one step intervs.l
125
TABLE XXII
DISTRIBUTION OP LIBERAL SCORES FOR
THE TOTAL EDUCATOR GROUP BY YEARS OF EDUCATION ATTAINED
Score
20 and over
Frequency
17-19
Frequency
16 and less
Frequency
78-80
2^
38 3
75-77
1x8
67 7
72-7I4-
69
92 10
69-71 56
91 15
66-68 30
89 3
63-65 36 61 7
60-62
iL
Ul
8
57-59 10 2 l | . 6
5i j .-56 10 20 3
51-53 9
6 2
4. 8-50 2 6 1
55-W
1 0 1
k2-hk
1
5
1
39-la
0 1 0
36-38 1 0 0
Total 312
5W
67
General mean 67.0 67.0
6I1..0
Mean
69.1
68 ♦ 2 66.3
Standard deviation
7.3
7.2 8.2
Standard error
tiie mean
of
.h
.3
1.0
Third quartile point
7k. 3 73.5 72.5
First quartile point 65.0 61.0 60.5
126
above the low for the twenty or over group.
The third classification, those with an education
of sixteen years or less, including respondents with bache
lors, special certificates or the equivalent, had a mean
liberal score of 66.3, a. median of 68.8, a third quartile
of ?2.5f and a first of 6 0.5* The range was from a high of
eighty to a low of forty-two, one step interval again
higher than the previous classification. The drop in
liberality of score appeared most noticeable in the first
quartile in this group, a drop of from 6$ to 6 0 . 5 or
points.
Significant differences. The only significant differ
ence found among these groups, see Table XXIII, was between
the twenty and over and the sixteen and less groups, and
that was at the 1 per cent level. This meant that in another
study of this type carried on at approximately the same time,
there were 99 chances in 1^ 00 that the twenty and over
group v/ould again show a more liberal tendency than the
sixteen or less group. It appears that years of education
attained had an influence on liberality of belief.
é, comparison of women *s liberal scores according to
amount of education attained. Tj^^e women’s replies were
broken down into the same three classifications as were the
total replies, that is, the twenty years of education and
127
TABLE XXIII
t-RATIO TABLE FOR SIGUIFICANT DIFFERENCES
IN YEARS OF EDUCATION FOR TOTAL SCORES
Standard
Years
Mean error of the Number
mean
-
20 and over
69.1
A
312
17-19 68.2
*3 $k3
16 and less 66.3 1.0
67
Total
922
Years
17-19
l6 and less
20 and over
17-19
1.9
2.6^
1.8
Significant at 1 per cent level
128
over, the seventeen to nineteen years and the sixteen years
and less group, The returns showed l60 respondents In the
first group, 262 in the second, and 53 i^ the third. The
range in raw score for the twenty years and over group was
from eighty to forty-nine; for the seventeen to nineteen
group it was a little greater, that is, from a high of
eighty to a low of thirty-nine; for the sixteen and less
group it proved to be the same as for the first, a high of
eighty to a low of forty-nine.
Table XXI¥ shows the computations in tabular form
for means, standard deviations, medians, and quartiles. The
mean scores kept the same order for the women as for the
total group, the tv/enty years or over classification showing
the greatest liberality with a mean of 70,6; the seventeen
to nineteen group ranking second with a mean of 69.6;
the sixteen and less group third with a mean of 67.3,
The medians and quartile scores showed the same general
tendency except in one instance. The median score for the
third group^ of 72.2 was higher than those for groups one and
two, due to the comparatively large number of scores, ten
and eleven respectively, falling in the seventy-two to
seventy-four and the sixty-nine to seventy-one step intervals.
The t-ratio table. Table XXV, page 130, pointed up
significant differences between the scores of the sixteen
years and less and both of the other groups, the one for the
129
TABLE XXIV
DISTRIBUTION OF LIBERAL SCORES FOR
THE WOMEN EDUCATOR GROUP BY YEARS Op EDUCATION ATTAINED
Score
20 and over
Frequency
1 7 - 1 9
Frequency
16 and less
Frequency
78-80 18 21 2
7S-77 7
7 2-7I 4.
hlL
àk
10
6 9 -7 1
2k $ 0 11
66-68 16
39
2
63-65 18
27
60-62
g
12 6
57-59 k 5
6
5I4.-56 2 6 1
§1-53 3
2 2
48-50
US-hl
1
0
3
0
1
0
1^2-kli. 0 1 0
39-la
0 1 0
Total 160 2 6 2
g3
General mean 70,0 67.0 67.0
Mean 70.6 69.6
67.3
Standard deviation 6.1 6.6 7 . 5
Standard error of
the mean
•5 .k
1.0
Third quartile point
7k. 9
72.6
69 *k
First quartile point - 66.8 66.2. 61.1
TABLE XXV
t-RATIO TABLE FOR SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES
IN YEARS OF EDUCATION FOR WOMEN:S SCORES
130
Years
20 and over
17-19
16 and less
Mean
70.6
69.6
67.3
Standard
error of the
mean
♦il
1.0
Number
160
262
53
Total
li-75
ears
17-19
16 and less
20 and over
17-19
1.5 2,9"
2.1**
Significant at 1 per cent level
Significant at 5 per cent level
131
twenty and over being at the 1 per cent level and that
for the seventeen to nineteen group at the 5 per cent level*
It appears practically certain that the number of years of
education these women had received had an Influence on the
liberality of their beliefs.
A comparison of men*s liberal scores according to
amount of education attained* From the foregoing statistics
it appeared that for the total group, and for the women
alone, the number of years of education attained had a
direct bearing on liberality of score* It is reasonable
to expect that the men*s scores showed the same tendency.
They were broken down in the same way as were the
total and women's scores, that is, the respondents having
attained a certain number of years of education were divided
into three groups : Twenty and over, seventeen to nineteen,
and sixteen years and less, as shown in Table XXVI* The
means, medians and quartiles were found for each group
according to liberal score obtained* A total of men's
responses were received to the question of age, of vrhich
152 were in the twenty years and over group, 281 in the
seventeen to nineteen and only l i i . in the sixteen years and
less group* Figures based on such a small number as the
latter could hardly be considered statistically reliable,
although they were included here for comparative pmrposes.
132
TABLE XXVI
DISTRIBUTION OF LIBERAL SCORES FOR
THE MEN EDUCATOR GROUP BY YEARS OF EDUCATION ATTAINED
20 and over
17-19
16 and less
Score Fre quency Frequency Freq,uency
78-80
7 17
1
75-77 23 26 0
72-714- P
69-71
32
41 k
66-68
iL
So 1
63-65 18
3i i .
2
60-62
9 29
2
57-59
6 19 0
51+-56 8 Ik 2
51-53
6 6 0
W -50 1
3
0
L5- W
1 p 1
42-144. 1
k
1
39-141
0 0 0
36-38 1 0 0
Total lg2 281
Ik
General mean 67.0
6k. 0
61.0
Mean 67.6 66.8 62.g
Standard deviation 8.0
7.S
9.6
Standard error of
the mean .6
• k
2.8
Median
69.5 67 .k
6k. 0
Third quartile point 73*5
72.k
69.6
First quartile point 63.3 62.0 56.2
133
^he mean, 67*6, of the first group was found to be
larger than the mean, 6 6* 8, of the second, The mean score
of the third group dropped to 62. 5* The medians of the
three groups showed the same tendency from high to low,
being 69.5» 67.l i , and 6 l \ . respectively.
The t-test table. Table XXVII, shows no significant
differences between the means of the three groups, one
reason being because of the small number of responses in
the third group.
In summary, it appears reasonable to state that the
liberality of the viewpoints of this group of men was in
direct proportion to the number of years of education they
had received.
é. ooiH-parison of years of education and liberal
score of the men and women within the same age groups. It
has been shomm that both women and men educators advanced
in liberality of belief with further years of s tudy. It
seems reasonable to assume that the extent of liberality
would be greater in the case of the woman educator than
the man under the evolving patriarchal culture system in
the United States of today. Such has proven to be the case
in practically every instance.
Out of a total of 9^2 replies to the question of
years of education attained, I 4 . 7 5 were women’s and 1 | 1 | . 7 men’s.
TABLE X X V II
t-R A T IO TABLE FOR S IG N IFIC A N T DIFPERENCBS
IN YEARS OF EDUCATION FOR MEN'S SCORES
ears
Standard
Mean error of the Number
mean
20 and over
67.6 .6 152
17-19 66.8
.4
281
16 and less 62.$ 2.8 14
134
Total
Years
17-19
16 and less
20 and over
17-19
1.1
1.8
1.5
No significant differences
135
twenty years and over group included l6o women as
compared with l52 men# The mean for the former was 70#6
as compared with that for the latter of 67.6. The women^s
medians, third and first quartlie scores showed in every
instance an excess over the men's.
In the seventeen to nineteen division there were
262 women’s replies and 28l men’s# Tj^e women’s mean score
was 69#6 compared with the men’s 66#8# The medians, third
and first quartlies showed in every case a similar liberal
tendency in favor of the women#
The sixteen years and less division was included for
purposes of comparison# ^ifty-three women's responses as
compared with l i | . men’s could not be considered statisti
cally sound# However, the liberal tendency in favor of the
women was the same except in one instance# The women’s mean
of 67*3 exceeded the men’s of 62#5 by I 4 . . 8 points# ^he
women’s median, third and first quartlies exceeded the men’s
in every Instance save that of the third quartile, where the
men’s exceeded the women’s by #2#
r n
hus, in every instance except one, and that one
statistically unreliable, the women gave more liberal res
ponses than the men in reply to questions as to their
beliefs regarding the equal rights status of women and men*
Summary# ^his chapter has presented data obtained
136
from the questionnaire regarding the significance of years
of education attained on liberality of score. The respond
ents were divided into three groups : (l) those having twenty
years of education or over, (2) those having seventeen to
nineteen years inclusive, and (3) those having sixteen years
or less. These groups were treated statistically in such a way
as to bring out the conclusion that for total scores, educa
tors who had received twenty years of education or more
tended to be more liberal than those who had received seventeen
to nineteen years. Those who had attained seventeen to
nineteen years were, in turn, more liberal than those who had
only attained sixteen years or less of education.
The same conclusions applied to women educators
alone, and to men educators alone. It appeared evident
that the amount of education attained by the respondent
had a direct bearing on liberality of score; the more
education attained the more liberal the score tended to be.
By nature of the study the women's scores might have been
expected to have been more liberal, and such has proven
to have been the case for each age classification.
CHAPTER VIII
LEVEL OP WORK VERSUS LIBERAL SCORE
The preceding chapter discussed the number of years
.of education attained by the respondents in relation to the
liberality of their scores. The present chapter investi
gates the possibility that the educational levels on which
the respondents worked might have had some effect on the
liberality of their beliefs, ^n attempt has been made to
find out what effect, and how much, the job level had on
score.
dumber and distribution of replies. Of the total
number of 926 responses, I 4 . 5 0 men*s and I 4. 76 women’s, used
in this study every one Indicated the job level of the
respondent. These levels were broken down into five classi
fications: (1) ^niversity and college, 573 respondents,
277 men, 296 women, (2) secondary, 100 respondents, 6l
men, 39 women, (3) elementary, I 4 . O respondents, I6 men, 2 I 4 .
women, ( I } . ) superintendents, administrators, and supervisors,
109 respondents, 68 men, 1x1 women, and (5) miscellaneous,
I0 I4 . respondents, 28 men and 76 women. By percentage, 62
per cent of the respondents came under the college and
university level, 11 per cent under secondary, I 4 . per cent
under elementary, 12 per cent under superintendents,
administrators and supervisors, and 6 per cent under mis
cellaneous «
138
The superintendents, administrators, and supervis
ors* classification included a majority of superintendents,
some high and elementary school principals, and a few
coordinating, curriculum and special subject supervisors.
At first an attèmpt was made to divide this classification
into two, one for superintendents and principals, and one
for supervisors, but this made the groups too small for
comparative purposes, especially when they were broken down
into men’s and women’s categories. A plan was next investi
gated for placing the superintendents, administrators and
supervisors under the headings designating level of work.
This did not prove feasible, however, as only a few of them
had indicated the level on vhich they were working.
The largest professional group included in the mis
cellaneous classification were the librarians. In the pre
liminary planning of this study they were given a classifi
cation by themselves, but on account of their comparatively
few number and the smallness of the miscellaneous group
remaining, they were included in this group.
■ Mean, median, and guartile scores for the total group.
Table XXVIII presents the central tendency scores of the
total group, showing the miscellaneous classification ranking'
highest of the five groups in liberality of score. The mean
of 70.6 exceeded its nearest rival, the college and university
139
TABLE X X V III
D ISTR IBU TIO N OP LIBERAL SCORES FOR
THE TOTAL EDUCATOR CROUP BY LEVEL OF WORE
— Super int endent s ,
College & . administrators
university Secondary Elementary & supervisors Misc.
;
Score Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency
78-80
75-77
72-71+
69-71
66-68
63-65
60 -6 2
E : i
51-53
I 4 . 8 -5 0
l l - 2-bll-
39-10.
3 6 -38
33-35
111
102
6 lt
30
23
21
10
6
1
3
1
0
'0
k
10
ii
Ih,
13
11
6
8
2
2
0
1
0
0
0
2
5
7
1
2
2
3
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
10
Ik
25
18
16
Ik
2
1
0
0
1
0
0
1
11
18
26
16
11
11
1
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
Total 573 100 I 4 . 0 109
lOl).
General mean 67.0 67.0 67.0 67.0 - 70.0
Mean 69.0 66.2
67.5 67.1 70.5
Standard
deviation 7.2 7.6
8.5
6.0
6.3
Standard error
of the mean
.3
.8 1.1) . .6 .6
Median 70.1 67.0
67.9
67.8 71.8
Third quartile
7l | - . 9
72.0 73,2 71.2 75,0
First quartile 61) . . 8 61.1 61.8
62.9 66.6
‘ X *
group by 1.5 points. he median score of 71*8, the third
quartile of 7^ and the first of 66.6, also exceeded in
every instance the college and university group as well as
all others.
As this group was of such a heterogeneous composition,
and had to do with other aspects of education than teaching
or the administration of schools, it could be assumed that
other educators than teachers and administrators might
prove even more liberally inclined toward equality of
status than those who v/ere connected directly with teaching
in the schools.
According to liberality of score the ranlcing of the
other four groups was as follows : (2) college and university,
a general mean of 68.9, (3 ) elementary, 6 7.5 * Ol) superin
tendents, administrators, and supervisors, 6 7.1 $ and (5)
secondary level, a mean of 66.2. % e median, third and
first quartile scores showed the same general tendency v/ith
two exceptions. The third quartile score of the superin-
' 7
tendents, administrators and supervisors group was slightly
lower than that of the secondary group. The first quartile
score of the superintendents, administrators and supervisors
was slightly hi^er than that of the elementary group.
Significant differences. Table XXIX points out
the significant differences, some at the 1 per cent and
lip.
TABLE XXIX
t-RATIO TABLE FOR SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES
BETIVEEN ?aEANS OF LEVEL OF WORK CLASSIFICATIONS
FOR TOTAL SCORES
Classification Mean
College and
university 69.0
Secondary 66,2
Elementary 67.5
Slip er int endent s,
administrators
and supervisors 67.1
Miscellaneous 70.5
Standard
error of the
mean
.3
.8
l . i l
.6
.6
Total
Number
573
100
ho
109
10l | .
926
Superintendents,
Classification Secondary Elementary administrators Mise,
and supervisors
College and
university
1 .0
2. 8^ 2.2^
Secondary
.9 .
1 .0
Elementary
.3
2. 0*
Superintendents,
admin istrators
and supervisors U.O'"
Significant at 1 per cent level
Significant at 5 per cent level
Actual t-ratio of 1.97i l ' > as compared to 1.977 needed for
significance with this number of cases
Xk2
some at the 5 per cent level, between the means of the
different groups.
T
he difference between the college and university and
secondary levels was found to be significant at the 1 per
cent level, indicating that if such a study were undertaken
again at approximately the same time, there are ,99 chances
in 1 00 that the college group would again prove to have
a more liberal score than the secondary one.
m
here proved to be a significant difference at the
1 per cent level also between the means of the college and
university level and the superintendents, administrators and
supervisors groups, between the secondary and miscellaneous
groups, and between the superintendents, administrators and
supervisors and the miscellaneous groups.
^he means of only two groups, the college and university
and the miscellaneous ones, proved significant at the 5
per cent level, that is, if another such study v;ere made
there would be chances in 1 00 that the miscellaneous
group would again prove to have a score more liberal than
would the college and university one. ^he difference be
tween the means of the elementary and the miscellaneous
groups came within .003 of being significant.
Mean, median, and quartile scores of the women*s.
responses. .^f the 14.76 women’s responses to the job level
question the majority, or 2 9 6, were on the college and uni
versity level. Thirty-nine were on the secondary level and
2 l \ . on the elementary. Forty-one were superintendents, ad
ministrators, or supervisors,and 7 6 were in the miscellan
eous group.
The ranks of the various groups on the basis of
liberality of score. Table XXX, showed a somewhat different
order from that of the total scores. It should be remember
ed that there is a question of the validity of the statistics
on account of the smallness of some of the groups. The
miscellaneous group ranked first, as before, with a mean
score of 7 0.8; the college and university group came second,
too, with a mean of 6 9.8 . But vdiere in the total groups
the elementary level ranked third, in the women* s group
the secondary came third with a mean of 6 9.3 . Whereas in
the combined groups the superintendents, administrators, and
supervisors ranked fourth, in the women's group the ele
mentary came fourth with a mean of 68.6. Whereas in the
combined groups the lowest in liberality of score was the
secondary level, in the women's the superintendents, admin
istrators and supervisors ranlced lowest with a mean score
of 6 8 Tjxe medians, third and first quartile scores, of
course, showed a similar trend.
A t-test. Table XXXI, was undertaken to discover
whether there were any significant differences between the
l i î l i
TABLE XXX
D IS TR IB U TIO N OF LIBE R AL SCORES FOR
THE WOMEN'S EDUCATOR CROUP BY LEVEL OP WORK
Superintendents,
College administrators
tmiversity Secondary Elementary & supervisors Mise*
Score frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency
78-80
75-77
72-714.
69-71
66-66
63-65
60-62
i t f i
h-ii
1 ^ . 2
39-Ip.
27
k$
51
35
12
9
9
0
3
0
0
1
I 4 .
I
1
2
1
0
2
1
0
0
0
2
1
3
2
2
0
0
0
3
0
0
1
0
1
i
10
8
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
15
22
II4 -
7
2
5
0
1
0
0
0
0
Total 296
39 2 I 4 -
ba 76
General mean 67.0 67.0 67.0 67.0 70.0
Mean 69.8 69.2 68.6 68.5
70.8
Standard
deviation
6 .5 7-k
I ) - . 8 5.0
5.9
Standard error
of the mean 1.2
1 .5 , .8 .7
Median 71.0 70. i l . 72iO 69.0 72.2
Third quartile 73.6 75.0
75.1
72.2
7i |..9
First quartile 65.9
65.3 65.5
6i|..0
68.5
iJ+5
TABLÉ X X X I
t-R A T IO TABLE FOR S IG N IF IC A N T DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN MEANS OF LEVEL OF WORK CLASSIFIC ATIO N S
FOR WOIÆEN'S SCORES
Classification Mean
College and
imlverslty 6 9 .8
Secondary 69.2
Elementary 68.6
Superintendents,
administrators
and supervisors 68.5
Miscellaneous 70.8
Standard
error of the
mean
. i | -
1.2
1.5
.8
.7
Number
296
39
2 1 4 .
Ip.
76
Total i l .76
Superintendents,
Classification Secondary Elementary administrators Misc.
and supervisors
College and
university
Secondary
Elementary
Superintendents ,
administrators
and supervisors
.5 1 . 0
•3
1.6
.5
.1
1 .2
1 . 1
1*3
2.2'
ll|.6
means of the five groups* One was found at the 5 per cent
level between the superintendents, administrators and super
visors group and the miscellaneous one. If another such study
were undertaken again there would be 95 chances in 100 that
the miscellaneous mean would again be more liberal than the
administrators * *
Mean, median and quartile scores of the men*s responses.
Of the Il 50 men replying 277 were on the college level, 6l
on the secondary, l6 on the elementary, 68 on the superintendents,
administrators and supervisors, and 28 in the miscellaneous group*
It is questionable whether the analyses of the two smaller
groups could be considered statistically reliable. In any
case, they were included for comparative purposes and as a
matter of interest*
The miscellaneous group ranked first for the men, as
vje 11 as for the women and the total groups, with a mean of
6 9.6, as shown in Table XXXII,
The superintendents, administrators, and supervisors
ranked fourth in the total group, with a score of 67.1»
while among the men alone they came second with a mean score
of 66*3.
In the total group the elementary level took third
place; in the men’s the college and university group ranked
third with a mean of 61^.8* The fourth place was taken by the
li|-7
TABLE XXXII
DISTRIBITTXOH OF LIBERAL SCORES FOR
THE ÎVÎEM'S EDtrCATOR GROUP BY LEVEL OF WORK
Score
College &
university
Frequency
Secondary
Frequency
Superintendents
administrators
Elementary & supervisors
Fre quency Frequency
9
Misc.
Frequency
7 8 - 8 0
20
0 0 0
5
75-77 35 3
0
7 3
7 2-714.
7
1 6
q-
6 9 -7 1 51 9
2
1 5
2
6 6 - 6 8
37 9 3
10
7
6 3 - 6 5
29
9
2 12
h
6 0 -6 2 18
9 k
8 1
ill
5
2
5
0
12 8 2 2 1
^1-^3
10 0 0 1 1
58-50
3
1 0 0 0
45-W
11 0 0 0 0
3
1 0 1 0
0 0 0 0 0
Total
277 61 16 68 28
General mean 6k. 0 6k. 0 61.0 67.0 67.0
Mean 6I4..8 6L}..2 63 # ^ 2
66.3
69.6
Standard-
deviation 7.8 7.0 5 .2 5.8 7 .0
Standard error
of the mean
.5 .9 l#if. .7 i.k
Median 69.2 61] . . ? 62.5
66.14.
68.5
Third quartile
75.5
69.8
67.5 70.9 75.5
First quartile
63.li 60.3 59.5
62*1
65.5
l L l - 8
secondary group with a mean score of
For the total educator groups the secondary level took
fifth place; for the men fifth place fell to the elemen
tary group with a mean of 6 3.2,
A t-test, Table XXXIII, was undertaken and several
significant differences were found# G-roups one and five,
the university level and the miscellaneous were found to
have a significant difference at the 1 per cent level, that
is, if another such study were made there are 99 chances in
100 that the miscellaneous would again be found to have a more
liberal score than would the university group. Similarly,
significant differences were found between the secondary
level and the miscellaneous group, and between the elementary
level and the miscellaneous group, all at the 1 per cent level*
The differences between the elementary level and the
administrators and between the administrators and the miscell
aneous groups were found to be significant at the 5 per cent
level. This indicated that in 95 chances out of 100 the
administrators in another such study would be found to be
more liberal than the elementary group; the miscellaneous
group would again be more liberal than the administrators.
A comnarison of central tendency scores of the women
versus the men. Of the 9 2 6 responses received to the job
level question, lq?6 were from women and \\S0 from men. Two
ll)-9
TABLE XXXIII
t-RATIO TABLE FOR SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN MEANS OF LEVEL OF WORK CLASSIFICATIONS
FOR MEN'S SCORES
Standard
Classification Mean error of
mean
the Number
College and
university 6I4..8 277
Secondary 6 i | . . 2
.9
61
Elementary 63.2
i.ll 16
Superintendents,
administrators
and supervisors 66.3
•7
68
Miscellaneous 69.6 l.il
28
Total
k$Q
Classification Secondary Elementary
Superintendents,
administrators Misc.
and supervisors
College and
university
•5
1.0 1.8
Secondary .6 1.8
Elementary 2.0"*^
3.3*
Superintendents,
administrators
and supervisors 2.2
CH3
Significant at 1 per cent level
Significant at ^ per cent level
150
hundred ninety-six women and 277 men indicated that they
were v/orking on the college level, 39 and 6l respectively
on the secondary, 2h. and l6 on the elementary, 1 ^ . 1 and 68
respectively as superintendents, administrators or super
visors, and 7 6 women and 28 men were included among the
miscellaneous educators.
Although the means of the five women * s classifications
showed in every case a higher liberal score than the men*s,
the rank order of the various groups differed in every
instance except one, the miscellaneous, which in both cases
ranked first. For the women the college group ranked se
cond, for the men it ranked third, while the administrators
came second. For the women, the secondary group came third,
vdiereas for the men it placed fourth, with the college group
ranking third. The elementary group took foijirth place for
the women as compared vdLth fifth for the men. The administra
tors ranked fifth for the women, as compared with second
for the men.
The women’s median and third and first quartile scores
showed a similar trend toward greater liberality except in
two cases. The women’s third quartile university group
score of 73.6 was lower than the corresponding one of 75#5
for the men. Similarly, the women’s miscellaneous third
score of 7l{-*9 was lower than the corresponding one of 75*5
for the men.
i 5 i
Smimarv. A total of 9 2Ô responses were received to
the question of job level, of which, were women’s and
LSO men’s. These total responses were tabulated under five
headings: (l) college and university, (2) secondary, (3 )
elementary, ( 1 | . ) superintendents, administrators and super
visors, and (5 ) miscellaneous levels, and treated statisti
cally for means and standard deviations, medians and third
and first quartile scores. The mean scores vfere then tested
for significant differences, some of which were found at the
1 per cent and some at the 5 per cent levels•
It was discovered that in liberality of score the
five groups ranged from a high for the miscellaneous to
a low for the secondary, with the university level ranking
second, elementary third, and the administrators fourth.
Certain significant differences were discovered among the
groups, four of them at the 1 per cent level and one at
the 5 per cent.
The women’s scores were analysed next and from high
to low were found to range as follows: miscellaneous first,
university second, secondary third, elementary fourth, and
administrators fifth, 'The t-test showed only one of these d
differences to be significant, that between the administra
tors and the miscellaneous groups at the 5 per cent level.
The men’s responses showed the miscellaneous group
again ranking highest, followed by the administrators second.
152
imiversity third, secondary fourth, and elementary fifth.
The t-test showed three of the groups to have significant
differences at the 1 per cent level and two at the 5 per
cent.
A comparison of the women Vs and men’s scores indi
cated greater liberality for the women in every classifica
tion. No two groups ranked in the same order with the ex
ception of the miscellaneous group, which ranked first in
both cases.
It appeared that for combined scores, level of work
in certain instances had a bearing on liberality of score,
although no overall conclusion could be drawn.
CHAPTER IX
POLITICAL PARTY PREFERENCE AND SCORE
The previous chapter dealt with the level of work on
which the respondent was employed at the time the study was
made and the liberality of score shown. There was a
possibility that the political preference variable might
have an influence on liberality of score, and in an effort
to determine if this were so the statistical analyses in the
present chapter were undertaken.
Humber and distribution of replies. Table XXXIV
indicates that a total of 90? responses were received to the
question of political party preference. These were classi
fied under three headings: (l) Republican, (2) Democrat, and
(3) Independent. It had been anticipated that there would be
sufficient responses to "other" party to make a fourth
classification possible, but the 9 that were received were
insufficient for statistical analyses, so they were included
under Independent. Out of the total of 90$, v/hich included
responses from every state in the union, 3$7 claimed to be
Republicans, Democrats, and 308 Independents. Their
scores v/ere computed and tabulated according to frequency
under these three headings.
A comparison of the mean, median and quartile scores
15k
TABLE XX X IV
D IS TR IB U TIO N OF LIBER AL SCORES FOR
THS TOTAL EDUCATOR GROUP BY P O LIT IC A L PARTY PREFERENCE
Score
Republican
Frequency
Democrat
Frequency
Independent
Frequency
7 8 -8 0 12
23 30
75-77
53
21 h.8
72-7I ! - 65 67
69-71 63 35
61
66-68 52
35
32
6 3 -6 5
5-1
36
31
6 0 -6 2 28 16 12
57-59 19 7 13
51+-56 12 8 8
5 1 -5 3 7
6
k
4 8 -5 0
5
2 0
L5-47 0 1 0
Ü2-Üi|. 0
3
2
39-ia
0 0 0
3 6 -3 8 0 0 0
33-35
0 1 0
Total
357
21I.0 308
General mean 67.0 67.0 70.0
Mean 67.6
67.9
70.1
Standard deviation 6.6
7.7 6.7
Standard error of
the mean
.3 .5 .1^
Median 69.2 68.9 71.1
Third quartile point
73.k
73.6 7lf-.6
First quartile point 63.8 63.8 66.2
155
for, the total, Rroim. fhe mean scores showed the Republican
party with the lowest of the three, with a score of 67.6;
the other central tendency scores varied as between Re
publicans and i^emocrats. ^he mean of the Democrats was
68, only . 1} . higher than the Republican mean. The Republican
median was 69.2, third quartile, 73. l | - and first quartile
score, 63.8. The median of the Democrats was 68.9* third
quartile score 73.6 and first quartile score 63.8* The
Democrats* third quartile score was only .2 higher than
the Republican one, the median was lower by .3* and the
first quartile was lower by .01. That is, the scores of
these two major parties varied so little as to be practi
cally negligible.
The Independent group showed a mean score of 70. 1,
the highest of the three. The other central tendency
scores, a median of 71*2, third quartile of and first
of 66.2, were also the highest of the three in each case.
It appeared that the independent thinkers v/ere in
clined to be more liberal in their beliefs toward the equal
status problem than the followers of the old party line.
Significant differences. The t-test for significant
differences. Table XXXV, shows no significant differences
betv/een the mean scores of the Republican and Democrat
parties, significance at the 1 per cent level between the
1 5 6
TABLE XXXV
t-E A T iO TABLE FOR S IG N IFIC A N T DIFFERENCES
IN P O LIT IC A L PARTY PREFERENCES FOR TOTAL SCORES
Party
Standard
Mean error of the
mean
Number
Republican 6 7 .6
• 3 357
Democrat
6 7 .9 .5
2liO
Independent 70.1
•k-
308
Total
905
Party Democrat Independent
Republican
.5
3.0*
Democrat
Significant at 1 per cent level
Significant at 5 per cent level
157
Republicaji and Independents, and significance at the 5 per
cent level between the Democrats and Independents. If such
a study were to be made again, there are 99 chances in 1,^00 :
that the Republicans would again show a less liberal score
than the Independents, and '95 chances in 1, 00. that the
Democrats would show a less liberal score than the Independents*
^ COBID arisen of the v^omen * s me an. median and quartile
scores. Of the women’s responses received, 192 claimed
Republican preference, 129 Democratic and claimed Inde
pendent* The mean scores of this group showed the same
relative positions as of the total group, the Republicans
having the lowest mean of 69•hs the Democrats ranking next
with 70.2, and the Independents highest with 70* 3♦
Table XXXVI shows the median, third and first quartile
scores of the Republican group to be 70*3^ 73>*9$ and 66*3
respectively. The Democrats v/ere higher in every instance
except one, the first quartile score of 6 5 as compared to
66*3 for the Republicans* The Democrats* median 7 1 and
the first quartile of 7l |'#6 both shov/ed more liberality than
the Republicans*
"^he Independents* groups central tendency scores were
highest in every instance, although the excess was in every
case so slight as to be negligible. The mean score proved
to be 70.3» as compared with the Republicans* 69* l | . and the
Ig8
TABLE XXXVI
D ISTR IBU TIO N OF LIBER AL SCORES FOR
THE W O ÎÆ E N EDUCATOR GROUP BY P O LIT IC A L PARTY PREFERENCE
Républicain Democrat Independent
Score Frequency Frequency I'Ve quency
78-80 8
17 Ig
7g-77
16 28
72-71*. 31 3b.
69-71 bo 17
28
66-68 26
Ig ig
63-6^ 16 20 16
60-62 8
7
6
^7-59 7
2 7
2
3 k
§1-^3
k 1 1
W-$o
b-
0 0
Total 192 129 igb-
General mean 67.0 70.0 70.0
Mean
69.b-
70.2
70.3
Standard deviation 6.^ 6.2 6.2
Standard error of
the mean
.5 .g .g
Median
70.3 71.h
71.g
Third quartile point 73.9 7l)-.6 7g.O
First quartile point 66.3
65.Î 4 -
66. b-
159
Demoorat8' 70.2* The other central tendency scores showed
similar slight differences.
Table XXXVII, the t-test for significant differences
indicates that there were none among these three political
parties for the women respondents. Any differences there
were were so slight as to be negligible or due to sampling
errors.
A comparison of the men * s mean, median and quartile
scores. Of the I ]30 men’s responses received, l65 claimed
Republican preference. 111 Democrat^ and l5l | - Independent.
Ihe men’s mean scores were different from the total
and women*s•means in that the Republican score of 66.7 was
higher than the Democratic mean of by 1.3 points. The
Republican median, third and first quartile scores of 66.8,
72.1, and 6l.6 respectively were higher than the Democrats*
of 66.8, 71.2 and 6l.{q respectively. The Independents*
central tendency scores, like those of the total and
women’s scores were in every instance, higher than the other
two as shown in Table XXXVIII, page l6l. The mean liberal
score.was 69.$, the median 70.7» the third quartile
and the first 65*9.
The t-test. Table XXXIX, page 1Ô2, showed no signifi
cant differences between the Republican and Democratic means,
but it did show one at the 1 per cent level between the
Republicans and the Independents. "^hat is, if such
160
TABLE X X X V II
t-R A T IO TABLE FOR SIG IJIPIC A N T DIFFERENCES
IN P O LIT IC A L PARTY PREFERENCES FOR WOMEN'S SCORES
Party
Standard
Mean error of the
mean
Rumber
Republican
69.k
192
Democrat 70.2
.5 129
Independent
70.3
.5 1514-
Total
klS
P
arty Democrat Independent
Republican
Democrat
1.2 l . I i
.1
î^o significant differences
l6l
[ [ v i B i i E S : x : x : x i f ] [ ] [ ] [
DISTRIBUTION OP
THE MEN EDUCATOR GROUP BY
LIBERAL SCORES FOR
POLITICAL PARTY PREFERENCE
Score
Republican
Frequency
Democrat
Frequency
Independent
Frequency
78-80 6
15
75-77
23
7
20
72-714.
18
13 33
09-71 23 16
33
66-68 26 20 17
63-65
16
15
60-62 20 9
6
57-59
12
5
6
5l )--56 10
5 h
^1-53 3 5 3
48-5^ 1 2 0
M - w 0 1 0
0
3
2
39-1 + 1
0 0 0
36-38 0 0 0
33-35
0 1 0
Total l6g 111 i5ii
General mean 6L..0 67.0
Mean
66.7 65.i | - 69.5
Standard deviation 6.8 8.7
7.0
Standard error
the mean
of
. 5 -
.8 .6
Median 66.8 66.8 70.7
Third quartile point 72.1 71.2 7h*2
First quartile point 61.8 61.1^
65.9
TABLE XXXIX
t-R A T IO TABLE FOR S IG N IFIC A N T DIFFERENCES
IN P O LIT IC A L PARTY PREFERENCES FOR MEN:S SCORES
162
Standard
^arty Mean error of the
mean
Number
Republican
66.7 .5
165
Democrat 65,k. .8 111
Independent
69-5
.6
1514-
Total h-30
Party
Democrat Independent
Republican
Democrat
la
Significant at 1 per cent level
163
another test were made at approximately the same time, there
are 99 chances in 1 00 that the Independent scores would
again show more liberality than the Republican, and that
the. Independents would be more liberal than the Democrats.
è: comparison of women*s versus men*s central tendency
scores. Of the 905 responses, received, were women * s
and 1 4 , 3 0 men*s* Both the women*s and the men*s central
tendency scores showed the Independent group to have the
highest liberal scores. Whereas the women’s responses gave
the second place to the Democrats and the third to the
Republicans, the men’s reversed the order giving second
to the Republicans and third to the Democrats. Among the
women’s groups there were no significant differences,
v/hereas among the men’s there were significant differences at
the 1 per cent level between the Republicans and Independents,
and between the Democrats and Independents. This would
indicate that, among the men respondents at least, political
preference had a bearing on liberality of belief, the most
liberal being those favoring Independent” political thinking
and the least liberal being the Democrats. Among the women
responding, although there were no significant differences,
the Independents again showed, the greatest liberality of
score; the least liberality was shown by the Republicans,
l6 l|-
Summary. ^he present chapter attempted, to discover
whether political party preference had any bearing on lib
erality of score. % e 905 responses received were divided
into three groupsî (l) Republicans, (2) Democrats, and
(3) Independents, and analyzed statistically for means,
medians and third and first quartile scores. It appeared
that those favoring Independents showed the highest liber
ality of score* those favoring the Democrats showed a slightly
higher mean than those preferring the Republican party, al
though this was not statistically significant*
Ihe t-test was given to discover whether the differ
ences between the means were significant. ?hat between the
Republicans and Independents proved to be significant at the
1 per cent level, and that between the Democrats and nde-
pendents significant at the 5 per cent level.
Ihe total responses were then divided into women’s
and men’s groups, and these were subdivided into Republican,
Democrat, and Independent classifications, ^he women’s and
the men’s scores were analyzed statistically in the same way
that the total scores had been.
The women’s means, by the t-test showed no significant
differences in liberality of score between the three groups.
The Independents ranked first, only slightly higher than
the Democrats, who were in turn less than one point
higher in liberality of mean score than the Republicans.
165
^he raen*s mean scores Indicated a slight difference
among the three groups in order of liberality as compared
with the total and the women's scores, in that although the
Independents still ranked first, the Republicans showed a
slightly greater liberality than the Democrats. Significant
differences showed at the 1 per cent level between the
Republicans and Independents, and between the Democrats and
Independents,
It appeared that, by and large, political party
preference had some bearing on liberality of score. Ihose
educators who expressed a preference for the Independent
party proved in every case to have a more liberal score
than those who preferred the Democrat or Republican parties.
Ihe educators who preferred the Democratic party, for both
the total and women's groups, showed a slightly greater
liberal score than did those who expressed preference
for the Republicans, although the Republicans showed
a slightly higher score for the men educators alone than
did the Democrats.
CHAPTER X
DATA FROM THE PERSONAE SECTION OF TEE QTmSTIONNAIHE
In the previous chapter an attempt was made to find
out how much difference political party preference made
on liberality of score ; certain interesting differences
were found. In this chapter a condensation was made of
certain personal information given by the respondents which
seemed to have a bearing on liberality of score, parti
cularly on that of the women respondents as compared with
the men.
Number and distribution of married, widowed, divorced
and single educators replying to the questionnaire. Of the
I4.50 men who replied, 1 |.08 or pi per cent were married, 20
or 1 | . per cent were single, 13 or 3 per cent were widowed,
and 9 or 2 per cent were divorced, Every geographical area
was amply represented for the total men and women educators,
although not for each of the groups as classified in this
section. Of the i|. 75 women replying, 109 or 23 per cent were
married, 321 or 68 per cent single, 3l \ . or 7 per cent widowed,
and 12 or 3 per cent divorced. That is, a preponderance of the
men educators were married and a preponderence of the women
single.
Effect of married status on liberality of score. women.
167
To discover vdiat effect, if any, marriage had on score, the
I1.76 women respondents were divided into four groups î (l)
married, (2) widowed, (3) divorced, and ( I j . ) single* One
hundred nine responses were received from the first group,
3 I 4 . from the second, 12- from the third and 321 from the fourth.
The mean was found for each group, although on account of
the fev/ness of the cases in the widowed and divorced classi
fications coîïgîarisons v/ere difficult. The widowed group
proved to be the most liberal on the equal status question
v/ith a mean score of 70.9; the married were not far behind
with a score of 70.6; the divorced ranked third with 68.8; and
the single women proved to have the least liberal score,
with a mean of 66,9. % e mean score for the total women
respondents was 68.1, 1.2 points higher than that of the single
women. Table XL presents the numbers of women educators
in each group v&rith their mean scores, ho test was made
for significant-differences between the means because of the
fevmess of the cases in two classifications.
Effect of marriage status on liberality of score, male.
Since the majority of the men educators fell into one
classification, the married one, once again it was difficult
to undertake comparative analyses which would be reliable.
Of a total of 1 | . 5 0 men responding, I 4 . O 6 were married, 13
widowed, 9 divorced, and 20 single. In liberality of
168
TABIiE XL
IÆARRIAGE STATUS OP WOÎÆEN EDUCATORS
VERSUS LIBERAL SCORE
Status Humber Mean Rank
Widowed
70.9 1
Married
109
70.6 2
Divorced 12 68 ;8
3
^ingle 321 66.9
Total
k-76 68.1
169
mean score the divorced men ranked highest with a score of
71.?, the widowers next with 66*1 } . , the married third with
6 1 | . . 7 and the single men fourth with 6 I 4 - . The mean of the
total men*8 scores was 6 1^.. 9. Table XLI presents these
data in tabular form for easy comparison. K'o test was made
for significant, differences between the groups on account
of the smallness of the classifications.
é. comparison of men* s and women * s scores according
to marriage status. The greatest number of men educators
replying were married and these ranked third in liberality
of score as compared with a ranking of second for the
married women educators. The single men although few in
number ranked fourth in liberality, and the single women
although greatest in number among the women also ranked
fourth. The divorced and widowed groupa for both the men
and women educators were too small for any definite conclu
sions to be drawn, although the evidence, inconclusive though
it is, showed them in all four cases to have a more liberal
score than the single men and women. Apparently marriage
had a definite bearing on the liberality of belief of both
the men and women educators toward the equal status problem.
Of the eight groups, the highest ranking one v/as the di
vorced men*s with a mean of 71*7* All other men's scores
fell below all other women's.
170
TABLE XLI
MARRIAGE STATUS OF m N EDUCATORS
VERSUS LIBERAL SCORE
Status Uumber Mean Rank
Divorced
9 71.7
1
Widowed
13
66, i 4 - 2
Married b,08
6I +.7 3
Single 20 61)..0
-V
1^
Total
k$o 61) . . 9
171
Number and distribution of.replies to certain per
sonal questions in the questionnaire. of the respondents,
a total of l\SO men and women, replied to at least some
of the personal questions discussed within this section.
Their replies were tabulated and subjected to critical analy
ses ,
To the question, ^*Have you ever wished you were born
of the opposite sex?" i j . or 1 per cent of the men respondents
out of a total of checked ”yes’ ^. One qualified his
answer by adding, "Once when I was small, I wanted to play
with some little girls and they wouldn’t let me because I
was a boy,** Five did not reply to the question. The re
maining men checked **no". To the same question, 119
or 26 per cent of the women respondents of a total of l^g6
checked "yes". Twenty did not reply. Three hundred thirty-
seven checked "no**. Several comments were made by women
educators to the question, of which the following are
typical:
I’ve never wished that I’d been born of the opposite
sex, but I’ve often wished I had the same opportunities
men have, -
I haven’t liked being turned down for a certain job
because I was a woman.
My sex has been a handicap in getting where I wanted
to go professionally.
According to the fact that less than 1 per cent of the
172
men as compared with 26 per cent of the women educators gave
a positive reply to the question on choice of sex it appeared
that a greater number of women than men felt that their sex
was a disadvantage for some reason or other,
r-.
The replies to the question: ”Have you ever exper
ienced discrimination in employment on account of your sex?**
Eleven men or 2 per cent checked **yes**, 6 gave no response,
I 4 . 3 3 checked **no”. Of the 11, 3 explained that the discrim
ination had been in their favor. Two hundred thirteen
women or l\S per cent checked the *Ves” response, 5 did not
reply, 2$8 checked **no”. Typical comments from the women
checking **yes" were :
Only in salary.
Administration on the higher levels is almost impossi
ble to break into.
Too many job fields have a "male only" tag.
Sex rather than ability is often the determining
factor in employment.
Two per cent of the men as compared with per cent
of the women felt that they had experienced discrimination
of some kind in employment on account of their sex.
To the question, "Have you felt inferior on account
of your sex?" 12 or 3 per cent of the men replied that they
had. There were no explanatory comments. The mean liberal
score for this group was 63.5* Seven made no reply. Four
hundred thirty-one checked never. One hundred eighty-four
173
or I lO per cent of the ¥/omen Indicated that they had felt
Inferior either frequently or occasionally. The mean liberal
score for this group was 70. One explanatory comment from a
woman vjho checked ^^never^^ was on this question of inferiority :
"Nevertheless, many times in meetings people have tried to
make me feel so,"
A percentage of I 4 . 0 for the women compared v/ith 3 for
the men indicated that a greater number of women than men
had felt inferior at some time or other on account of their
sex.
"Would you say that men and women should have equal
rights in all fields, namely political, economic, domestic
and social?" Tq this question I j - 1 0 or 9 i | - per cent of the
men checked "yes", 28 or 6 per cent "no". The mean liberal
score of this latter group was 53*2 as compared with a mean
score for the total men*s group of 6lp.9. Twelve did
not reply, "^our hundred forty-four, or 95 pef cent of the
women educators indicated that they felt that women should
have equal rights. Twenty-two or 5 per cent checked "no".
The mean liberal score for this latter group of women v/as
62.7 as compared with a mean of 68 for the total women res
pondents. T@Yi did not reply. There was a greater degree
of agreement among men and women on this question than on
the previous three discussed as shov/n by a percentage of plf
for the men compared with 95 for the v/omen. Several
17U
educators of both sexes added that the rights should be
e qua 1 or * * c omp ar ab 1 e " •
”Would you say that men and women do have equal ri^ts
at the present time in the above men.tionned fields%iis
question brought forth ko5 or 95 per cent negative answers
from the men educators, 23 or 5 per cent positive* ^hose
who thought that the two sexes had equal rights showed a
mean liberal score of 6l, as compared with 65 for the total
men * s group. Twenty-two did not respond. Four hundred sixty
or 99 per cent of the women checked ^ ’ no^', 5 or 1 per cent
'*yes". The mean score of this small group was 70. F lev en
gave no reply.
The agreement was fairly general among the total
educator group that equality of rights for women and men did
not exist, at the time in the -American culture system.
Table XLII presents the total results in tabular
form for comparative purposes.
Summary. In this chapter certain information from
the personal data sheet of the questionnaire was tabulated
and analyzed. A n 926 respondents replied to all or part
of the questions. They were divided into men’s and women’s
groups and these were in turn sub-divided into (l) married,
(2) widowed, (3) divorced and (Iq) single classifications,
A comparison was then made of the ways the various classifications
TABLE XLII
NmmER Aim DISTRIBUnON, ACCORDING TO SEX,
OP RESPONSES TO CERTAIN PERSONAL QUESTIONS
OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
17$
Wished they had Experienced Have felt
been bom of opposite discrimination inferior on account
sex on account of sex of s ex
Men Women Men Women Men Women
Yes
k
hhi
119
11 213
12 I8I 4 .
No
337 k33
2g8
li-31 279
Number
of
m m
replies w s
555
l t -71
No
reply
5
20 6
$ 7 13
Total
m m
Ifëô 1+76
Pelt that Pelt that
equal rights status equal ri^ts status
should exist did exist
Men Women Men Women
Tes
!+io 14A
,2 3 g
Ho 28 22 14.05 U.60
Number
of
replies I 1.38 IjS 5 I 42Ï Ï IjS5
No
reply 12 10 22 11
Total 550 m
176
replied to the questions,
The large majority of the men educators, namely pi
per cent, were married, as compared with only 23 per cent
of the women who were'. Four per cent of the men as com
pared with 68 per cent of the women respondents were
T
single, hree per ent of the men and 7 per cent of the
women were widowed, while 2 per cent of the men and 3
per cent of the women educators were divorced. The
single women, 68 per cent of the total women responding,
proved to have the least liberal score and the widowed the
most. The mean score of the married classification, which
ranked second, was less than half a point below the
widowed, while the divorced ranked third. Among the
men educators the divorced ranked highest in liberality of
score, even higher than the widowed women, and the single
■ j j
lowest. he widowed and the married men ranked second
and third respectively, *^t appeared that marriage had a
definite bearing on the liberality of belief of the
respondents, both women and men, toward the problem under
discussion.
To the question: "Have you ever wished you were born
of the opposite sex7^ * the replies indicated that less than
1 per cent of the men as compared with 26 per cent of the
women had Y/ished that they had been.
To the question: **Have you ever experienced dis
crimination in employment on account of your sex?^^ two per cent
177
of the men indicated that they had experienced it, as com
pared with 1 j .5 per cent of the women who had*
To the questionÎ *^Have you felt inferior on account
of your sex?’ * three per cent of the men indicated that they
had compared with IqO per cent of the women who had*
^inety-four per cent of the men educators and 95
per cent of the women felt that men and women should have
an equal rights status.
Ninety-five per cent of the men respondents and 99
per cent of the women felt that men and women did not have
equal rights at the time.
It was overwhelmingly apparent that both men and
wcrmen educators, within the limitations of the study,
felt that the equal status position did not exist at the
time,and just as. evident that they thought it should.
PART III
CHAPTER XI
GOHCLHSIONS AND RECOMmNDATIONS
Recapitulation of the problem* The present study
employed the questionnaire method* The questionnaire or
inventory used was developed out of materials from a study
by Kirkpatrick of Minnesota, and dealt with the question of
equal status rights of men and women * A new set of eighty
propositions, forty liberal and forty conservative, was
developed, based upon his condensation into forty issues,,of
resolutions seeking equality of status, from numerous
women’s organizations dating back to 1900. The questions,
although based on Kirkpatrick is sues were different.
However the overall objective was the same, that is, to
discover the beliefs of certain individuals about the equal
status rights of women and men.
The questionnaire was mailed to 3,000 of the leading
educators of the country chosen from Cattell’s book^9 of
that name. Nine hundred twenty-six copies of the questionnaire
were returned, representing every state of the union, and
a tabulation of their replies served as the basis for this
study. The questionnaires were scored for liberal position
j^ McKeen Cattell, Jacques Cattell, and E. E* Ross,
editors, Leaders in Education* Hew York* Science Press, 19i|Y.
179
defined as pro-equality of rights with possible scores ^
ranging from a high of plus eighty to a low of minus eighty.
Descriptive and comparative analyses based on central
tendency scores were then made by means of the statistical
method, first for the whole group, and then for the men and
women separately. Rank order correlation coefficients
were computed according to the percentage of approval of
propositions by the two sex groups. Tables and graphs
were used wherever it was felt they would clarify the findings.
Educator comment was included when it helped to explain why
certain propositions were checked as they were, or when
ever it seemed to throw light on the problem as a whole.
Some general findings. It was apparent that the
leading educators were inclined to be extremely liberal on
the question of equal status. This liberality might have
been more apparent than rea.1, however, on account of the
limitations of all questionnaire studies. The extremely
high coefficient of correlation of .97 between the percentage
of agreement to the items of the questionnaire, by the men
and women, showed the unanimity of belief about the equal
status problem and eliminated the possibility of a sex
difference in the findings. Women educators were inclined
to be'^^îightly more liberal than men. Prom $0 to 100 per
cent of the educators accepted thirty-eight propositions.
180
all liberal, in varying degrees, while less than 50 per cent
accepted forty-two propositions, two liberal and forty con
servative in varying degrees, A breakdown of the liberal and
conservative propositions into four .categories was made
to discover in Which fields the greatest amount of agreement
and disagreement lay, These categories were classified as
the (l) economic, (2) domestic, (3) political-legal, and
(i+) conduct and social status, Tq the,liberal propositions
there was the greatest amount of disagre ment in the economic
field, second greatest in the political-legal, third in
the conduct and social and fourth in the domestic field.
To the conservative propositions the amount of agreement was
so small in most cases as to be comparatimly unreliable.
However, here too the greatest amount of disagreement appeared
in the economic category. The agreement between men and
women was closer in response to the liberal propositions
than it was to the conservative.
Geographical area and score, The Hnited States was
divided into five geographical areas : (l) Middle States ,
{2) Hew -^ngland, (3) Horth Central, ( II) Western, and ( 5)
Southern States, The data revealed that the educators of
the Hew ^gland States vfere inclined to be the most liberal
of all the areas toward the problem of equal status, those
I 8 l
from th.e Western States were second, the Middle States third,
the îîorth Central, fourth, and the leaders from the Southern
States were the least liberal. The women were inclined to
be more liberal than the men in each one of the aforementioned
areas »
^ge and belief. The age range of the total group
was from thirty-two to sixty-six years. The respondents
were divided into four age groups: (l) sixty and over,
(2) fifty to fifty-nine, (3) forty to forty-nine, and
thirty-nine and less. Tjie total tabulations showed the
oldest group, the sixty’s and over, to be the most liberal.
It was followed by the others in the following order : The
fifty to fifty-nine,second, the thirty-nine and less, third,
and the forty to forty-nine year old group was the least
liberal. The women’s group showed the difference in liber
ality of score to be in direct ratio to age, the oldest
group being the most liberal, the youngest the least, with
the fifty to fifty-nine group ranking second and the
forty to forty-nine third. he men’s scores showed the
youngest group to rank highest in liberality of score,
followed by the others in the following order : ^’ifty
to fifty-nine, sixty and over, and the forty to forty-nine
year olds. Significant differences appeared between the
sixty and over, the forty to forty-nine groups, and between
182
the fifty to fifty-nine and the forty to forty-nine year
old groups*
t appeared that age was not highly significant in
determining liberality of belief on the problem under
discussion. Sex appeared to exert a greater influence as
shown by the fact that in every case but one the women’s
scores proved to be higher than the men’s, The one exception
was in the case of the youngest group of men educators, the
thirty-nine and less, which was found to have a higher
score than the youngest group of women educators.
V "
ears of education and beliefs of leading educators.
m
he 922 respondents were divided into three groups according
to the amount of education attained by each: (l) Tj^ose
having twenty years or over, (2) those having seventeen to
nineteen years inclusive, and (3) those having sixteen years
or less. These groups were treated statistically, and the
conclusion was reached that the educators ?/ho had received
twenty years or more of education tended to be more liberal
than those who had received seventeen to nineteen years.
Educators who received seventeen to nineteen years of schooling
were in turn more liberal than those who had received
sixteen years or less.
The total group was broken down into separate groups
of men and women, and each was divided into three sub-groups
and treated statistically in the same way as the total group
183
had. been, results were the same, that is, both the
men and women educators in the twenty and over classifications
were found to be more liberal than the seventeen to nineteen
year olds, and these were in turn more liberal than the six
teen and less group. In every classification the scores
made by the women were slightly more liberal than those
of the men.
It appeared evident that the amount of education
attained by the respondent had a direct bearing on liberal
ity of score in response to questions o n the equal status
problem.
I vue of work versus liberality of s core. A tdtal
of 926 responses were received to the question of job level.
Ihese were scored and combined under five headings : (l)
College and university, (2) secondary, (3) elementary,
(1 ^) superintendents, administrators and supervisors, and
(5) miscellaneous, which included librarians, doctors,
research workers and so forth. Ihe scores of each group
were treated statistically for measures of central tendency,
and a t-test was made for significant differences.
According to liberality of scores the groups were
ranked in the following order : (l) Miscellaneous, (2)
college and university, (3) elementary, (ij.) superintendents,
administrators and supervisors, and (5) secondary. Certain
significant differences were discovered, four of v/hich
I 8 i | .
were at the 1 per cent level and one at the 5 per cent.
The responses of the men and women were then analysed
separately In the same way as the total scores had been, and
the groups were found to rank somewhat differently. The
women’s scores showed the rank order of the groups to be
as follows : (l) miscellaneous, (2) college and university,
(3) secondary, i l \ . ) elementary, and {5) superintendents, ad
ministrators and supervisors. A significant difference
was found between two of the groups. The men respondents
showed the following different ranking based on liberality
of 8 core : (l) miscellaneous, (2) superintendents, administrators
and supervisors, (3 ) college and imiversity, (i|_) secondary
and (5) elementary. The miscellaneous group still ranlced
first, but the rankings of the others had changed from
both the total and the women’s rank order. Significant
differences showed up at the 1 per cent level between
three groups, and at the 5 per cent level between two
others. A comparison of men’s and women’s scores indicated
that the women’s groups showed a greater liberality for
every classification.
On the wîiole, the type of work appeared to have some
bearing on liberality of score, although it varied within
the sex groups.
Political party nreference and liberalitv of score.
The 905 responses were divided into three classifications.
185
(l) Hepublîcans, (2) Democrats, and (3) independents, and
analyzed for mean scores so that comparisons could be
made among them according to liberality of score, ^he inde
pendents showed the greatest liberality, the Democrats came
second with a slightly higher mean than the Republican
party which ranked last, % e difference between the means
of the latter two parties was not significant. The differ
ence between the means of the independents and the Republicans
was significant at the 1 per cent level, and that between
the independents and Democrats, significant at the 5 per cent
level.
The total responses were divided into sex groups and
these were eahli subdivided into the same classifications
as the combined group had been; T^eir scores were treated
statistically and comparisons made among the groups. The
means for the women by the t-test showed no significant
differences among the classifications, although the mean
score of the independents ranked first, it was only sli^tly
higher than that of the Democrats, ^’ his was in turn less
than one point higher than the Republican mean.
The means for the men indicated the highest liberality
of score for the independents, second for the Republicans,
and third for the Democrats. ^hat is, although the Independents
ranked first, as for both the total and women* s scores, the
Republicans replaced the Democrats for second place, ^igni-.
fleant differences showed at the 1 per cent level between
186
the independents and Republicans and between the independents
and Democrats #
Dt appeared that, by and large, political party
preference had some bearing on liberality of score.
Data from the bersonal section of the questionnaire.
Questions were included in the personal data section of the
questionnaire to discover whether certain other variables
than those already studied had any influence on liberality
of score. A n of the 926 respondents replied to some or all
of the questions, fhe questionnaires were divided into
male and female groups and these were in turn sub-divided
into : (l ) Married, ( 2 ) widowed, (3) divorced, and (liJ
single classifications. A comparison was made between the
groups according to liberality of score, but it must be
kept in mind that on account of the smallness of some of the
groups, the validity of some of the comparisons is question
able .
Rinety-one per cent of the men educators were married
as compared with 23 per cent of the women, four per cent of
the men as compared with 68 per cent of the women were single,
'ï'hree per cent of the men and 7 per cent of the women were
widowed, while 2 per cent of the male and 3 per cent of the
female educators were divorced.
% e scores of the women ranked hi#iest in liberality
in every case except one* % e divorced men’s mean score
187
of 71.7 was higher than that of any other group. ^Ith this
exception, the mean score of every other women's group ex
ceeded that of every other group of men. -^mong the classi
fications of women the widowed e due a . tors ranîced first in
liberality, married second, divorced third, and single fourth.
Among the men educators, the divorced showed the
greatest liberality, the widowed second, married third, and
the single the least.
*^t appeared that, within the scope of the study,
marriage had a definite relationship to the liberality of
score.
the question asking whether the respondents had
ever wished they had been born of the opposite sex, less
than 1 per cent of the men compared with 26 per cent of the
women indicated that they had such a wish.
Asked whether they had ever experienced discrimination
in employment on account of sex, 2 per cent of the men and
1 4 . 5 per cent of the women replied affirmatively.
■^hree per cent of the men as compared with IpO per cent
of the women had at some time felt inferior on account of sex.
Asked whether they felt that men and women should have
an equal rights status, Çh. per cent of the men and 95 per
cent of the women gave an affirmative reply.
To the question asking v/hether they felt that men and
women did have equal rights, 95 per cent of the men and 99
188
per cent of the women indicated that they did not.
It was evident that both men and women educators
felt that the equal ri^its status should exist, and even
more evident that they felt that it did not exist at the
t ime *
CONCLUSIONS
Ambiguity in women * s role. The high coefficient of
correlation between the percentage of agreement, to the
various items of the questionnaire, of the men and women
showed the unanimity of belief about the equal status prob
lem, and eliminated the possibility of a sex difference in the
conclusions. There was probably no more real difference
between the men* s and women * s replies than might have been ■
m
found between any two random groups of the same sex. hat
being the case, it appears important to reconcile these
beliefs with the difference in percentage of "yes" and "no"
replies between the men and women to certain questions on the
personal data section of the questionnaire.
For example, why should less than 1 per cent of the
men as comoared with 2 6 per cent of the women educators have
ever wished that they had been born of the opposite sex?
Was it ..because of the fact that the male prestige attitude
in the American culture system gives men an advantage over
v/omen in the economic, domestic, political-legal, and conduct
and social fields?
189
Linton^O has suggested that in a strong patriarchal
society any male, even an infant, outranked any female. Even
in the more matriarchal societies the same situation seemed
to exist,
Kitay^l found that a low prestige group (women)
tended to adopt prevailing views originated by a high
prestige group (men), even though those views v/ere uncompli
mentary to itself,
Komarovskypointed out that a girl's education
had no definite course, direction or goal, the end result
tending to be confusion and insecurity for the individual
rather than a clarification of role,
Seward’s study^3 emphasized the dangers to society
of an educational system which tended to throw a girl or
woman into a state of emotional and cultural confusion upon
marriage by emphasizing one form of behavior for a single
girl or woman and another for a married woman; both girls
" èO Ralph 3 Jinton, ^*Age and Sex Categories,^* American
Socioi. Rev,. VII: 589-603, I9L.2,
5^ Philip M ^ Kit ay, '*A Comparison of the Sexes in
Their Attitudes and Beliefs About Women, A Study of Prestige
Groups, " Sociometrv. Ill: Ho; I t . , Ipii-O,
Mirra Komarovsky, "Cultural Contradictions and Sex
Roles,** American Journal ^ociol, LII: l6i | , -89> IPW,
53 Georgene H, Seward, **Sex Roles in Postwar Planning,*’
£our, Sqo , Psvchol., XIX: 163-85»
190
having been educated in the same system and motivated by
the same vocational goals. One of them suddenly, on account
of marriage, is confronted by a reversal of values, and
expected to conform to the domestic way of life for which
she had no training and perhaps has less interest.
Kirkpatrick^^- took as his assumption the hypothesis
that feminine issues contributed significantly to cultural
confusion and to ambiguity in the roles in modern women,
and proceeded by the questionnaire method to show that this
was true. /
This devaluation of women, this ambiguity in role and ^
the cultural confusion which results, raises the question of
the educators* aims or goals. Have they formulated any for
themselves in the light of the new knowledge on sex differ-
ences? Do they believe in equality as this study indicates,
and teach inequality as the devaluation of women would seem
to suggest?
Discrimination. Why should only slightly over 2
per cent of the men educators have stated that they felt
discrimination in employment on account of their sex, (with
four, or over one third of these, mentioning that the
” A Clifford Kirkpatrick, "Content of a Scale for
Measuring Attitudes Toward Feminism," Bpciol. and Spc.
Res., XX: 512-26, 1936.
191
discrimination was in their favor) as compared with, slightly
over I 4 . 5 per cent of the women educators who felt they had
experienced discrimination? Since these respondents were
all in the educational field, are educators themselves, in
spite of the apparent liberality of their beliefs, guilty
of practising and condoning discrimination on account of
sex? Are they guilty too of, explicitly or implicitly,
encouraging it in other fields? This would appear to be
the case if the evidence is to be accepted,
Kingsbury * s^^ study on the economic status of
university women revealed that approximately one third of
8,796 women responding stated that they had met with dis
crimination, Sex was given by 6I | - per cent of the women as
the reason for that discrimination, which took many forms :
(1) Small beginning salary, (2) refusal of a job, (3) re
duction in salary or demotion in duties, (k) restriction
In promotion, ($) loss of a job, (6) miscellaneous diffi
culties .
One half of the married women reported discrimination
for that reason,
hefever*s56 survey on the status of the married woman
kb Susan M. Kingsbury, ^^Economic Status of %iversity
Women in the U.S.A.," Bulletin, Women’s Bureau, Mo, 170,
Washington: U. S. DepTI of habor7 19'J > 9 * ~
k6 Ruth B, I»efever, The Status of the Married Women
Teachers in the Elementary Schools of Los %Reles County,
U.S.G. Thesis, M.A., I930.
192
teacher concluded that it was evident that economic and
other factors unconnected with classroom efficiency helped to
determine much of the present opinion regarding the employ
ment of married women teachers.
Patrick^? pointed out that certain stereotyped pic
tures of women executives were found, in her study, to be
shared alike by housewives, men executives, and even the
women executives themselves, which often conflicted with
what they knew of themselves and of their own personal
experiences.
Williamses study revealed the prestige difficulties
that a woman doctor must overcome to succeed as compared with
a man, that is, she was preferred only to a very young man
or a negro doctor.
Bryan and Boring*s59 study highlighted the differ
ences in remuneration suffered by women psychologists for
approximately the same work compared with men psychologists.
Have educators analyzed and given their stamp of
!?7 Catharine Patrick, ^ ’ Attitudes About Women Execu
tives in Q’ overnment Positions, " Journal of §,oc_. Psychol..
XIX: 3-31;., I9l^.
58 Josephine T. Williams, "Patients and Prejudice
Bay Attitudes Toward Women Physicians," American Journal
Socioi.. LI: 283-87, 19i j . 6.
Alice Bryan and Edvfin G. Boring, "Women in
American Psychology: Statistics from the OPP Questionnaire,"
American Psvchologist. I: 71-79? 19I4-6.
193
approval to these types of sex discrimination? Or have they
deliberately looked the other way, preferring to ignore them
rather than to take a stand?
Inferiority, ^ess than 3 per cent of the men had at
some time felt inferior in some degree on account of their
sex, as compared with liO per cent of the women who stated
they had experienced the same feeling on account of theirs.
Is there something innate in sex itself that would tend to
cause this feeling of inferiority? ^r is there a fault
in the educational system, since these people were all leading
educators, which operates to give even certain educators a
feeling of inferiority?
Kitay^O gave his answer to this question in the
following words:
%e propagation of the^elief that women were in
ferior creatures who could not perform any of the
world * s important work was an effective way to keep
women from competing with men. Apparently women even
tually came to believe that their inferiority was a
fact.
It would appear either: (l) %at these women edu
cators actually believed they were inferior, and/or (2)
conditions operated in such a way as to impress upon them
the fact that, whether they believed themselves Inferior
or not, they were in an inferior bargaining position when it
60 Kitay, loo. cit.
19k
came to Jobs, salaries and prestige,
Deegan's^l study revealed that the single woman had
been consistently devalued and ridiculed in the literature
of the country during the last hundred years, She had been
pictured either as tinhappy, disagreeable, unattractive and
pitiful,'or as a minor, self-effacing and humble character.
Is it any wonder then. In the face of the evidence,
that women have felt that they wished they had been born of
the opposite sex, (or belonged to the prestige group);
that they have felt discriminated against, and that they
have felt inferior on account of their sex? ^he question
is, ¥diat are the educators doing to remedy the condition?
It was interesting to note that in each of the three
.cases cited above where the men educators wished they had
been born opposite, felt discriminated against, or felt
inferior, their mean scores were several points lower than
those^of the women, From this fact it might be assumed that
the few women educators concerned v/ere more conscious of the
inequalities thin were the men, There was nothing in the
data to indicate whether any steps were being taken to
alleviate a condition that would cause l j . 0 per cent of the
leading women educators of the country to have felt inferior
on account of their sex,
61 D . Y'J Deegan, "Single Women in American hovels, "
In preparation. Teachers College, Columbia University,
Georgene H, Seward, Sex and the Social Order. ^^ew York :
McGraw-Hill, 196, IpîJST
195
Before 1903, when I’ hompson^^ Began her experimental
studies on sex differences, and wrote her early reviews on
the subject, followed by those of Hollingsworth, G’ oodenough,
and Allen, to mention only a few, male strength undoubtedly
gave the impression of overall male superiority* ïhe assump
tion apparently was that as man was stronger physically,
so also was he superior mentally and spiritually. %ere
was little, if any, scientific data upon which to base a
refutation of this doubtful hypothesis vdiich gave such an
overwhelming advantage to half the population at the
expense of the other half.
i'hompson’s work aroused such interest that others
soon tackled the subject under such headings as intelligence,
specific mental abilities, language development, motor devel
opment, personality, growth, education, and so forth,
Wellman*s^3 review has covered the work on sex differences
fairly thoroughly, to the early thirties. She supplemented
it by calling attention particularly also to the summaries
of Allen, Goodenough, Hollingsworth, Lehman and Witty, Lincoln,
Catharine Cox Miles, ^*Sex in Social Psychology,**
Institute of Human Relations, Yale Hniv., 683-797. Carl
Murchison, A Handbook of Social Psychology. Worcester:
Clark Univ. Press, 1935*
^ 3 Beth L, Wellman, **Sex Differences, * * State Hniv. of
Iowa, 626-1^ . 9, Murchison, A Handbook of Child Psychology.
Worcester: Clark Hniv. Press, 1933*
196
Louttit, Thompson and Woolley.
In the light of this research and the evidence dis
closed, there would appear to be little excuse for allowing
such undemocratic and inequitable practices, as exist in
relative opportunity for individual growth between the
sexes, to remain unchallenged any longer*
Both women and men educators were thoroughly con
vinced, according to their responses, of the fact that it
was undemocratic and unjust that equal status should not
operate for both women and men. hey were Just as convinced
that the equal-status situation did not exist.
Ihat being the case, it would appear that, in regard
to this problem, educators have not as yet put their o¥/n
houses in order, ^hey have allowed an inequitable and
undemocratic condition to exist, one which is damaging to
the morale of all concerned, while making little if any
attempt to correct it. It would seem that they have also
aided and abetted in their own profession the same inequal
ities and injustices, with little attempt to recognize
or clarify the situation, ^hey appear to have failed too
to recognize that they themselves as educators are partly
responsible for existing conditions.
RSCOMïÆENDATIONS
^f this situation, which makes for insecurity and
197
cultural confusion, is to be remedied it is necessary to :
1# Make further studies and analyses of different
phases of the problem in secondary schools and universities.
Encourage discussion of the duties, responsibilities and
rights of girls and boys in an effort to discover what
constitutes them, in the elementary schools,
2, ■^nlighten the public, through the educational
system, regarding the physiological and psychological
similarities and differences between the sexes, and stress
the need for cooperation.
3* Clarify women * s status through discussion of the
biological function as compared with the social role, from
the elementary to the adult education levels, '
I j - , Emphasize ability rather than sex as the criterion
for job placement, Teach students, from kindergarten to
imiversity, to recognize what constitutes ability. "Empha
size the dangers of mediocrity through the suppression of
ability.
5. "Encourage equal representation, as a matter of
course, of boys and girls in committee, executive and
administrative work in schools and universities.
6. Broaden the homemaking program for boys and the
shop program for girls in elementary and high schools to
encourage a sense of democratic cooperation, respect and
mutuality.
198
7* Emphasize the scientific method as the best
approach to the problems arising out of the differences between
the sexes as found in the Western culture.
8. Encourage educators to clarify and justify their
ovm stand, and teach and act accordingly.
9. Search for the greatest areas of agreement in the
four fields, economic, domestic, political-legal, and social
and conduct, and make an immediate start to adjust the lag
in social attitude to the level of scientific knowledge.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
200
A. BOOKS
Arnett, Claude E,, Social Beliefs and Attitudes of American
School Board Members > itansas : "lEmporia Gazette ^ress ,
1932. .
Bair^-'Prederick H,, The Social Understandings of the Super
intendent of Schools! Wêw’ ^îorkl Teaohers~^ollege,
Columbia tJniversity, 193W
Catte11, J. McKeen, Jacques Cattell, and E. E. Boss, headers
in Éducation. New York: Science Press, 19 l| -l .
Harper, M a n l j H., Social Beliefs and Attitudes of American
Educators. ' New York: Teachers College, C^olumbia
University, 1927,
hefever, Buth B.,* The Status of the Married Women Teachers
in the Elementary Schools of Lo s ' Angel es~l^ cunt y. U,S,G.,
MT AT^hesis, 1930.
Miles, Catharine Cox, **Sex in Social Psychology." Institute
of Human Relations, Yale University. Carl Murchison,
A Handbook of Social PsycholoCT. Worcester: Clark
University Press, 193^.
Murphy, O., L, B, Murphy and T. M. Newcomb, E x perimenta 1
Social Psychology. New York: Harper Bros., 1937.
Neilson, WiiHam A,, editor, Webster*s New International
Dictionary of the English Dang^ua^e". Springfield:
M’ erriam, 19l |jo .
Peterson, Francis E,, Philosophies, of Education Current in
the Preparation of eachers in the United States. Hew
York: Teachers Uoliege, ColumbisTUniversity, 1933*
Seward, Seorgene, H., Sex and the Social Order. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 19l j . 6.
Thunbtone, L. L, and E. J, Chave, The Measurement of Attitudes.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929*
Ward, Merle Scott, Philosophies of Administration Current in
the Deanshlp of the Liberal ^^ts College. New York:
Teachers College, Columbia University, 1931) ' *
201
Warrenÿ Howard G., editor. Dictionary of PsycholoCT* Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 193M-.
B. PERIODICAL ARTICLES
Allport, C-. W., "Attitudes, Carl Murchison, A Handbook of
Social Psychology. Worcester: Clark University Press,
193^.
Bryan, Alice and Edwin G. Boring, "Women in American Psychol
ogy, Statistics from the 0.P.P. Questionnaire," American
Psychologist. I: 71-79, 194^.
Kirkpatrick, Clifford, and S. Stone, "Attitude Measurement
and the Comparison of Generations, " J ournal of A-pnlied
Psychology. XIX: $64-82, 1935.
Kirlcpatrick, Clifford, "Measuring Attitudes Tovmrd Feminism,
A Belief Pattern Scale," Journal Social Psychology. VI:
73-80, 1936.
"Construction of a Belief-Pattern Scale for Measur
ing Attitudes Toward Feminism," Journal of Social Psy
chology. VII: 421-37, 1936.
"Content of a Scale for Measuring Attitudes Tovmrd
Feminism," Sociology and Social Research. XX: $12-26,
1936.
Kingsbury, Susan M., "Economic Status of Hniversity Women
in the U.S.A.," Bulletin Women's Bureau. No. 170,
Washington: Department of Labor, 1939.
Kitay, Philip M., "A Comparison of the Sexes in Their Atti
tudes and Beliefs About Women, A Study of Prestige Groups,
Sociometry, III: 399-407, 194o.
Komarovsky, Mirra, "Cultural Contradictions and Sex Roles,"
American J ournal of Sociology. LII: 184-88, 194^*
Linton, Ralph, "Age and Sex Categories," American Sociology
Review, VII: $89-603, 194^.
Patrick, Catharine, "Attitudes About Women Executives in
Government Positions," Journal of Social Psychology.
XIX: 3-34, 1934.
202
Ratcliffe, Melia B.^ Accredited Higher institutions. Mo.
Federal Security Agency, U. S, Ôffice of Education.
Washington; S. Government Printing Office, 19l | - 5*
Seward, ^eorgene H,, **Sex Holes in Postwar Planning,** J ournal
of ^ociai Psychology. XIX: 103-85, 1 9 l | i | . #
Wellman, Beth L., "Sex Differences." State University of Iowa.
Garl Murchison, A Handbook of Child Psychology. Worcester:
Clark University”I^ress, 1933*
Williams, Josephine J., "Patients and Prejudice, Bay Attitudes
pQward Women^Physicians," American Journal of Social
Psychology. BI: 283-87, 19l|3.
APPENDIX
535 3* Oxford St.,
Los Angeles, 5, Calif,
June 30, 1947
To the Leaders of Education,
United States of America.
Dear Educators:
The projected investigation is seeking to discover
the prevailing beliefs of leaders in education about certain
aspects of the economic, social and conduct, political-legal,
and domestic status of women in modern society.
It is felt that such a study will do much to
focus, and perhaps help to clarify the cultural confusion that
exists in education and in society as a whole today, owing to
the diverse and often contradictory beliefs regarding women.
The method I am using is, of nece*ssity, the
questionnaire, a copy of which I am enclosing for your inspection
and completion. Your cooperation, suggestions and advice are
necessary for the completion of this study, and 1 assure you that
they will be greatly appreciated.
1 am only too conscious of the fact that in your
position, time is valuable, especially at this time, and would
hesitate to infringe on it were it possible to obtain this
information in any other way.
Thanking you in anticipation, and once again
assuring you of my appreciation, I am
Sincerely yours.
(Miss) Belle K. McGauley
' » .........
^ G: 1 n i ri I ii" î -jr: I'm n ^ ,7îi "j i:q i. ■ )•; : i r, rt
f )rr>r,7ov/ b n 7 rrcm m 'ï 'lotlsî r.r-r'^r-H; ;■ -■ ;
77'v:*^ ni.ocf ",o xij • . ■ ■ ; ‘ " ..
f 1
^ ) . W *ov.' I(ioUi:':bi -f ' ■ :’ ...
{ ; - il
f
( ]
(
( 1
r )
(
f \
; '1. 1 ■ " ! ' t r izu (;■'■■.'■.■
Beliefs About the Status of Women
Conducted by
( ) vj-j; . . - , • Belle K. McGauley
■ t ' ■ L h ■ ■ ■ Under the Direction of
The University of Southern California
" . 1
DIRECTIONS
* ■ Please read these directions careifully.
(1) Please check ( V ) those statements which you accept as expressing
^ - your own way of thinking and feeling. If you have no particular
belief on a certain statement leave it blank.
f _ C ‘ ‘ (2) If' there are statements which you feel strongly about check them
twice ( V y )•
^ 1 (3) Please fill out the Information Sheet at the end of the scale as com
pletely as possible. Results will be used solely for scientific purposes
C ' so it is hot necessary to sign your name.
- • ' I
^ 1. Women should be prohibited from economic competition with men................................................. (
6 ^ 2. Women should be their own judges, subject only to native capacity, to enter training for a
particular occupation......................................................................................................................................(
3. It is in the interests of society that there be a distinct division of labor for men and women (
4. Women should have a voice in the making of conditions and the setting of hours under
which they work.............................................................................................................................................(
5. A man should receive a higher salary than a woman for identical work.....................................(
•6. Women should be as free as men to compete in every sphere of economic activity.............(
7. The husband should make the final decision as to how the family income should be spent.. (
8. Women are too emotional to make good medical doctors.......................... (
9. Women should accept men’s decisions as to what occupations they are best fitted for (
10. ■ The relative amounts of time spent on home duties and on one’s career should be deter
mined by personal preference rather than by sex...............................................................................(
11. Parents should have equal responsibility in the rearing of the children.................................... (
12. A woman should be required by law to take her husband’s name at marriage .............(
13. The husband should reserve the right to decide on all purchases before having to pay
for them................................................................................................................ (
14. A woman who continues to work outside the home after marriage is neglecting her re
sponsibility to home and fam ily........................................................ (
15. The intellectual capacity of women entitles them to full equality with men in the admin
istration of public affairs.............................................................................................................................(
16. If there is insufficient money for a higher education for both sons and daughters, all the
available money should be spent on the son’s education...................................................................... (
17. The “obey” should be retained in the marriage service as an appropriate part of the
w ife’s marriage vows.......................................................................... (
18. A married woman should perform her “conjugal duty” at her husband’s request regard
less of her own feelings in the matter................................................................................. (
19. Marriage should be a partnership in which there should be no question of the submission
of any one partner.................................................................................................... (
20. When a woman marries she should expect all outside interests to give way to her domestic
obligations .............................:........................................................................................................................ (
21. The wife should have the same legal rights and privileges in making her will that is ac
corded to her husband............................... (
22. The intellectual leadership of the community should be largely in the hands of men..............(
23. Too much money is spent on professional training for women.................................................... (
24. Non-working married women should expect a regular housekeeping and personal allotment
as a necessary part of home management, rather than as a favor............................................... (
25. If a woman wishes to marry a man she should make every effort, within reason, to do so.. (
26. The wife should be prevented by law from willing any of her property away from her hus
band (
27. Women policemen should be appointed in every city to insure fairness and consideration
for women in law enforcement.................................................................................................................. (
28. Every individual, regardless of sex, should be free to choose his own vocation...................... (
29. Women should be guided by men as to the hours and conditions under which they work....(
30. The belief that women are too emotional to make good medical doctors and lawyers is no
more true than many of our superstitions........................................................... (
31. A wife should be expected to keep herself charming for her husband at all times....................(
32. Daughters should have the same privileges and opportunities as the sons.............................(
33. Both women and men should do the jobs for which they are best fitted regardless of sex..... (
34. It is in the interests of society that mothers of illegitimate children should be required to
take full financial responsibility for them..........................................................................................
35. Men and woman should have equal rights in regard to the property of a deceased child
who has died without making a will................................................................. -......................................
36. As in a business partnership, both husband and wife should have an equal share in decid
ing how the family income should be spent..........................................................................................
37. It is in the interests of society for a woman to be the “clinging vine” type of person........
38. Both women and men should keep their own names after marriage if they wish to do so..
39. The father should make the final decision in all important matters concerning the upbring
ing of the children...................................................... i..................................................................................
40. The word “obey” should apply equally to both partners if it is to be used in the marriage
service ................................................................................ — ........................................................................
41. Married women should have the legal right to citizenship irrespective of that of their
husband’s .......................................................................................................................... ..............................
42. All laws and social requirements should be uniform for women and men...............................
43. It is more objectionable for a woman to swear than it is for a man............................. ........
44. The wife should be submissive to her husband at all times...............................................................
45. Women and men have equal intellectual capacity ...............................................................
46. Married women should have full control of their persons and give or withhold sex intimacy
as they wish....................................................................................................................................................
47. The unmarried mother should be censured more severely than the unmarried father............
48. A man is no more justified in expecting his wife to be charming at all times than she is
justified in expecting him to be.............. .................................................................................................
49. A woman should be equally efficient when men are present and when they are not............
50. Married women should not feel duty-bound to bear children against their wishes................
51. Women should be ineligible for public offices involving heavy civic or national responsi
bility .......................................................................................................................................;........................
52. It is no more objectionable to hear questionable language used by a woman than by a man..
53. Married women should struggle against becoming domestic servants........................................
54. Any form of athletic activity should be open to women who care to participate.....................
55. Divorce laws should be the same for both men and wom en.................................................
56. It is in the interests of society that women take a greater responsibility in the social and
intellectual leadership of community affairs......................................................................................
57. Women should take the passive role in courtship ............................................................................
58. Women should be guided by men’s views as to decorum and decency in dress.....................
59. The husband should be empowered by law to dispose of family property as he deems in the
best interests of the family ...............................................................................................................
60. It is appropriate that tradition and custom have provided a somewhat different standard
for men than that provided for women................................................................................................
61. The father should have preference as the legal guardian of a minor child.............................
62. Women should decide for themselves what is appropriate in feminine dress.........................
63. Legal pressure should be brought to bear to secure support from fathers of illegitimate
children............................................................................................................................................................
64. There should be equal pay for equal work regardless of the sex of the worker.........................
65. Police duty should be restricted to men...................................................................................................
66. Disposal of real property or of common earnings by the husband without the wife’s con
sent should be restricted by law...............................................................................................................
67. The father should have more claim to the earnings of a minor child than the mother........
68. Training for the 'Bocial and intellectual leadership of community affairs should be largely
restricted to men. --( )
69. Legal restrictions affecting minimum hours and conditions of employment should be uni
form for both women and men ( )
70. A woman should be accorded the same freedoms under society’s code of customs and regu
lations as a man....................................^ .............. ( )
71. The husband should be permitted special grounds for divorce which are not available for
the wife............................................. '...................................................................................- ( . )
72. There should be a distinction between men’s and women’s sports ( )
73. A woman should be required by law to accept her husband’s nationality ( )
74. When a woman marries she automatically obligates herself to bear children ( )
75. The mother and father should by law have equal rights to the guardianship of their child
ren ( )
76. There should be a single standard in sex matters for women and men ( )
77. In the interests of society there should be a merit system of public appointment and promo
tion regardless of sex ( )
78. There should be special laws defining the hours and working conditions for women which
may differ from those applying to men ( )
79. Legislation protecting women is more greatly needed than similar laws for men ( )
80. Men are superior to women intellectually. .( )
Please ( \ / ) or fill in the appropriate answer for each question.
1. What is your sex? Male (.............) Female (.............)
2. What is your locality of (a) residence (........................::...................................................................................)
(b) birth (............................................................... ) ?
3. Are you (a) married (.............) (b) single ) (c) divorced (.....) (d) widowed ( ) ?
4. What was the country of birth of (a) your mother (..................................................................................... )
(b) your father (.....................................................................................) ?
5. What is your religious preference (a) Catholic (............) (b) Protestant (.............) (c) Jewish
(............) (d) no preference (............. )?
7. How many years of schooling have you had (a) 9-12 (............ ) (b) 13-16 (............ ) (c) 17-20.(....... )
(d) over 20 (............ ) ?
8. What degrees have you received (a) B. A. ( ) (b) B. Sc. ( ) (c) M. A. (.............) (d)
M. Sc. (............) (e) Ph. D. (.............) (f) Ed. D (............) (g) Others ( ) ? ..................................
9. What is your political party preference (a) Independent (............) (b) Democrat ( ) (c)
Republican ( ) (d) Other..(.............) ? ....
10. What is your present age (.................) ?
11. Have you ever wished you were born of the opposite sex? Yes ( ) No (.............)
12. During childhood which parent carried the heaviest burdens (a) your mother ( ) (b) your
father (............) (c) neither (............. ) ?
-4 3 . Have you ever experiehced discrimination in employment on account of your sex? Yes (...... )
No (............ )
14. On what educational level is your work (a) Elementary (.... ) (b) Junior High (............ ) (e)
Senior High (............ ) (d) Junior College (............. ) (e) University (............ ) (f) Other..(.............) ?
15. What is your usual occupation? Please be exact. For example, supervisor, administrator, teacher
of English, Psychology, etc. (......................... .:................................. )
— 16. Have you felt inferior on account of your sex (a) frequently (............ ) (b) occasionally..(.............)
(c) never (............ ) ? .
17. Would you say that men and women should have equal rights in all fields, namely, political, econ
omic, domestic and social? Yes (............ ) No (............ )
18. Would you say that men and women do have equal rights at the present time in the above men
tioned fields ? Yes (............ ) No ( ) ( )
19. Remarks:
O BlversIt/ of s o u th e rn California
- 0 0 5
It is not necessary to sign your name, but your place of residence is important.

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Asset Metadata

Creator McGauley, Belle K (author)

Core Title Beliefs of leaders in education toward status of women

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Education, Leadership,OAI-PMH Harvest,women's studies

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c26-410267

Unique identifier UC11244826

Identifier usctheses-c26-410267 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier DP23988.pdf

Dmrecord 410267

Document Type Dissertation

Rights McGauley, Belle K.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA