Gender Prejudice and Female Achievements

Introduction

For years ago, when education started to develop in many countries, people tend to pay special attention to the learning outcomes. It can be assessed through many factors such as scores, achievements, skills,... Especially, the achievement is the most important thing in each person's life because it affects directly to their future life and their future career also. Many factors can influence achievement such as motivation, anxiety, social-economic, etc... and scientists have also acknowledged those elements. Student achievement, as well as academic performance, is directly influenced by motivation (Skaalvik, 1994 Skaalvik & Rankin, 1995 as cited in Singh, Granville & Dika, 2002), or many researchers have also found out that the social-economic status has a significant impact on the learning outcomes and achievements of students (Baharudin & Luster, 1998 Jeynes, 2002 Eamon, 2005 Majoribanks, 1996 Hochschild, 2003 McNeal, 2001 Seyfried, 1998 as cited in Barry, 2005).

Moreover, as Nicholson (2009) conducted a study on grade 11 students and it is shown that there is a relationship between the test anxiety and student achievements.

However, while most researchers tend to focus on those factors, there is also an aspect of gender stereotype has been forgotten.

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Gender prejudice is the discrimination that depended on one person's gender: male or female. In general, it can affect both men and women but mostly men are being favored. The discrimination between males and females has existed for a long time and it affects directly to our society. It is believed that females mostly and negatively been influenced by this prejudice. There are thoughts that girls do not need to have high education, girls do not need to have a job because they must get married soon and must stay at home to take care of children and family.

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Moreover, it is said that females are not suitable for some science subjects, such as mathematics, chemistry,.. and only some social subjects like literature, history,... that they should learn. Therefore, in detailed, female achievements mean that the success of women and they were people who were influential in both academic and in society.

Specifically, in FPT University in Viet Nam, it is believed that male students should attend the technology field such as systems engineering, computer security, and female students should attend the language field such as English Major or Japanese Major. This gender prejudice has obviously existed in most students' minds for quite a long time.

With that in mind, we decided to carry on this research to find out whether gender stereotype affects female achievements.

The purpose of this survey study is to elaborate on and clarify the link between gender prejudice and female achievement for 200 Vietnamese FPT University students at any age and branch of learning. The independent variable will be defined as gender prejudice. The dependent variable will be defined as female achievements. The data analysis will answer the question of whether the discrimination between males and females influences female’s achievement.

Literature Review

Among the research I have consulted, the research named “Gender Stereotypes and Attitudes Toward Women and Men” that was published in 1989 had also related to my research.

In 1989, Eagly with a coworker, Mladinic have together conducted a study about males and females prejudice and attitudes toward different sex. The authors chose to carry on an experimental study in order to observe the results completely. They tested it on 203 participants, including 99 males and 104 females in order to complete the requirements of a psychology course at Purdue University. All the participants have to work together and answer the questionnaire in a group of approximately 20 participants in a classroom. The questionnaire was used in the study contained three types of instruments for evaluating attitudes and prejudices related to four objects of their attitudes: females, males, Democratic party’s members, and Republican party’s members. After collecting the data, the authors used ANOVA to analyze the data they received from the participants. The results revealed that gender prejudice had a positive relationship with their attitudes. This study had challenged the negative idea that people held for a long time about the stereotype about men and women.

One of the researches I have referred, there is research named “Gender-Related Stereotypes of Transformational and Transactional Leadership” was published in 1997 and I found that it is related to my study.

In 1997, Maher has conducted a study about gender prejudice of the transformational and transactional leadership. The author tested this theory on 262 people including 133 females and most of them were Caucasian. Among them, 36% of the participants were under 25 years old, 47% of the participants were ranged from 25 to 34 years old, 13% of the participants were ranged from the age 35 to 44 years old and 4% of the participants left were from the age 45 to 54 years old. Generally, 73% of them worked full-time, 23% of the participants had a part-time job and 4% of participants were presently unemployed. All the participants were asked to evaluate their supervisors at that time, and those who are unemployed had to rate the previous executives. Among 262 people, they evaluated 163 male bosses and 99 bosses. After collecting the data, they identified the dependent variable as leadership ratings and independent variable as participants’ sex, supervisors’ sex and the interaction term. The result showed that there were no differences in gender managers ratings about transformational leadership. And this study also rose the significance that if females were viewed by other females as more transformational, females may hold a higher position in leadership.

Moreover, there is also research that has the topic that related to the current study which is “Women in engineering in Turkey – a large scale quantitative and qualitative examination.” was published in 2009.

In 2009, Smith with a coworker, Dengiz, have together conducted a study about gender prejudice and women in engineering in Turkey. The authors chose a mixed-method approach to carry on this study. The statistics and survey about gender prejudice that both female and male students at a university in Turkey participated revealed the results that males thought engineering field was not suitable for females, and on the other hand, females had a neutral viewpoint (Kusku et al., 2007). They tested this theory on over 800 women with a cross-sectional study and divided into three parts of collecting the data. Firstly, they conducted a survey at 7 universities to find out the reasons why females choose engineering field. The next part of this study, the authors held a group of over 70 Turkey female experts from different levels which were bachelors, Ph.D., masters, professionals in order to expand the results. And the final part was the authors interviewed Turkish female students to clarify their aspirations as well as their motivations. There were 671 participants responded to this survey and 21% of them graduated from a private high school, 60% of the participants were from a public high school and 19% left were from other kinds of high schools. In the survey, there were 12 questions. The results finally showed that females had fewer opportunities in this field than males, especially in the lower educational system, gender prejudice had not been acquainted than in the higher educational system.

In my research, I decide to focus

Methodology

Purpose

The purpose of this survey study is to test the relationship between gender prejudice and female FPT students’ achievement. Moreover, the research will be conducted to answer the question of whether the discrimination between males and females influences female FPT students’ achievement.

Data Collection and Instrument

A quantitative approach will be chosen to carry on this study because it offers trustworthy statistics, the author can collect data through an online survey, telephone or other remote methods. Moreover, the quantitative method will be more suitable in this study than the qualitative method and mixed methods because the data that is collected by qualitative approach can be excessively and to gather and analyze it will waste a lot of time. The quality of the data through this research can be negatively affected by the researcher’s bias viewpoint and will make the final result be incorrect. And the reasons for not using a mixed method in this study because it is very complex so that it will take a lot of time and resources to carry on the research.

The nature of the study will be cross-sectional as the research will use an online survey via Google Form because of its convenience as well as effective. The survey will limit access to only FPT students. By using this type of survey, the cost can be saved, and it is easier to approach to a large scale of people. The research survey will include question type and statement type that will evaluate the participants’ feeling, agreement, and disagreement in this survey.

The answer scale will range from 1 to 6 that in the statement type, 1 is strongly disagree, 2 is disagree, 3 is slightly disagree, 4 is slightly agree, 5 is agree and 6 is strongly agree. In the question type, the answer scale is changed in order to make the answer suitable with the questions of the survey, 1 is not at all, 2 is not so much, 3 is so-so, 4 is a little, 5 is quite a lot, and 6 is very much.

In this study, to measure and evaluate the independent variable, I am going to use three variables: religion, parents, and society as Hunsberger & Jackson (2005) revealed the relationship between religion and gender prejudice Garaigordobil & Aliri (2012) also showed the link between parents and females and males stereotype Rutland, Killen & Abrams (2010) revealed that there is a relationship between social-cognitive and gender prejudice.

Population and Sample

The research site of this study is FPT University, a private university in the North of VietNam. At the time when this research is conducting, there are approximately 5000 students from various branches of learning such as technology, English language, Japanese language, business, and graphic design are attending all the courses in FPT University. The sampling size is 200 Vietnamese students who are randomly chosen and they will not be stratified. All the participants in the study are at any age as well as attending any branch of learning. Because of selecting participants randomly, the sample of this study is a convenience sample.

Data Analysis

In this study, to analyze the data received from participants, I am going to use the IBM SPSS software in order to calculate Cronbach’s Alpha and the variable will have a high validity as well as the reliability if the Cronbach’s Alpha value I have just collected is ranged from 0.84 to 0.86. After this step, I can clarify which variable has the highest percent of reliability, hence, this variable will be the most prominent in the research. After that, I will interpret the data from IBM SPSS to prove whether it affects our research problem.

References

  1. Barry, J., (2006). THE EFFECT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT.
  2. Eagly, A. H., & Mladinic, A., (1989). Gender Stereotypes and Attitudes Toward Women and Men. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15(4), 543-558.
  3. Garaigordobil, M., & Aliri, J., (2012). Parental Socialization Styles, Parents’ Educational Level, and Sexist Attitudes in Adolescence. The Spanish Journal of Psychology 2012, Vol. 15, No. 2, 592-603.
  4. Hunsberger, B., & Jackson, L. M., (2005). Religion, Meaning and Prejudice. Journal of Social Issues, 61 (4), 807-826.
  5. Maher, K. J., (1997). Gender-Related Stereotypes of Transformational and Transactional Leadership. Sex Roles, Vol. 37, Nos. 3/4, 1997.
  6. Nicholson, A. M., (2009). Effects of test anxiety on student achievement (ACT) for college bound students. Dissertation Abstract International. DAI-A-70/07,AAT 3366126
  7. Singh, K., Granville, M., & Dika, S., (2002). Mathematics and Science Achievement: Effects of Motivation, Interest, and Academic Engagement. The Journal of Educational Research, 95(6), 323-332.
  8. Smith, A. E., & Dengiz, B., (2009). Women in engineering in Turkey – a large scale quantitative and qualitative examination. European Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 35, No. 1, March 2010, 45–57.
  9. Rutland, A., Killen, M., & Abrams, D. (2010). A New Social-Cognitive Developmental Perspective on Prejudice. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(3), 279–291.

Appendix: Combined List of Items Included in the Questionnaire

Scales for statement-type items:

  1. (Strongly disagree)
  2. (Disagree)
  3. (Slightly disagree)
  4. (Slightly agree)
  5. (Agree)
  6. ( Strongly agree)

Scales for question-type items:

  1. (Not at all)
  2. (Not so much)
  3. (So-so)
  4. (A little)
  5. (Quite a lot)
  6. (Very much)

Religion:

  • Do you agree with the thought that females do not need to have high education?
  • Females only need to be good at doing the household chores.
  • Females do not need to be succeed in their life.
  • I think that females’ achievement is good at domestic science.
  • Do you think that females should get married at a young age?

Society:

  • Females who have their own career do not have time to take care of the family.
  • Females do not need to study master degree.
  • Females do not need to study PhD.
  • Females can not learn science subjects such as engineering, computer security,...
  • Females have to stay at home to take care of their children.

Parents:

  • Do your parents have gender discrimination idea?
  • Have you ever been discrimination by your parents?
  • Do you agree with the gender prejudice idea?
  • Parents think that I should get married after graduating from university.
  • Parents think that I can not study technology field.
Updated: Feb 12, 2021
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Gender Prejudice and Female Achievements. (2021, Feb 12). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/gender-prejudice-and-female-achievements-essay

Gender Prejudice and Female Achievements essay
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