Primary Research #1

Group 4: Jacob Lequire, Maddie McDonald, Daniel Cornett, Carson Davis, Makenzie
Young

Overview: Our group focused on gender bias on college campuses for our inquiry
assignment. Through our research findings in the databases, we all found
occurrences of gender bias somewhere within a college institution. Jacob, Carson,
and Makenzies findings involved gender bias within a specific major such as
education or the nursing field. Daniels research involved bias found when applying
for scholarships at universities. Maddies scholarly journal took the opposite side
and looked at gender bias among professors at a college institution. All of our
findings pointed to the fact that gender bias is present among college campuses,
and even later in life within the workforce. Our survey that we sent out to our peers
consists of five basic questions that ask about the existence of gender bias here at
UNC Charlotte.

Question 1: Do you see professors calling on males or females more, or is

it almost equal?
We asked this question, because we wanted to see if the professors had any
involvement with the gender bias, if it existed, on campus. Fifty-two people took
part in our survey, and the majority, 47 of them, claimed that the professors called
on males and females equally. Three respondents claimed that professors called on
males more often, and two respondents claimed that professors called on females
more often. The outliers may be referring to majors where the classes are more
male or female dominated, but for the most part, this question shows that the
professors dont necessarily play a part with the gender bias on campus. Our results
were surprising, because many of the cases we read about talked about the
professors playing into the gender bias on campus, but that wasnt the case here.

Question 2: Do you think there is gender bias of students or professors in

specific fields of study?
This question combined the gist of three of our articles which was that gender bias
is prevalent in certain majors and areas of study. When designing this question, we
came up with four answer choices, which had yes for three of them, breaking it
down by student, professor, or both, and the other choice being no, there isnt any
perceived bias. Fifty percent of the 52 people that answered this question said that
they sw gender bias in both students and professors, while about 34% of people
said they dont see any gender bias. This question reveals that the vast majority
(66%) of our sample size, however small, believes that gender bias exists in
particular fields of study today.

Question 3: If you think there is gender bias, do you think it is due to the
students preferences, the college, or society?
Gender bias can be created in different ways. Sometimes people and their choices
create gender bias, sometimes a larger power can control gender bias by placing
people or creating rules, and sometimes societal norms affect what people do. This
questions was asked because some fields of study, clubs, or living areas may be
occupied more by men or women, and we wanted to know what people thought the
cause of this was. To begin, one person skipped the question, which I am assuming
means they do not think there is a gender bias. 21.67% of participants believed
gender bias was created by students preferences, 7.84% of participants believed it
was created by the college, and the majority of participants, 70.59%, believed it
was created by society. These results show that most people think society and its
norms and values create these ideas that a gender should do a certain thing.

Question 4: Do you think professors are generally easier on males,

females, or neither?
We asked this question to get the jist of how different students felt about gender
bias in the classroom. Depending on the classroom, there could be more males or
females, so some opinions may be based on the uncontrolled gender bias of the
classroom. Of the 51 responses that we received, 58% thought that neither were
preferred, 27% thought females had the preference, and 15% thought that males
were preferred by the professors. These results conclude that there is not a lot of
gender bias in the classroom with the professors toughness, but some people
believe that there is.

Question 5: The dorms at UNCC are all coed. Do you think this has an
effect on gender biases, if you believe there is one?
This question was asked because we wanted to know if people thought the living
conditions on campus contributed to gender bias on campus, if it existed Of the 51
individuals polled, 3 responded with Yes, and the remaining 48 responded with
No. This left the poll with a count of 5.88% No, and 94.12% Yes. Although the
choices to this question were limited, this question provided insight to what many
individuals though of the living conditions, and an overwhelming majority of them
did not think that the way dorms are set up effects gender bias on campus.