I just stumbled across your journal after putting up a post referring someone to your work for her research paper on female characters in scifi/fantasy literature. She's doing a piece on gender roles. Now I gotta go back and refer her to this too. :)
I did 5 years of psych research with Dr. F. L. Geis on gender/role/status theory at U of DE. In her memory, I just conducted some quick "research" using my brothers/sisters and some of their friends as subjects. My siblings and I span over 25 years in age ranges. Not very scientific, but fun.
I made 28 people sit and read this whole thread using my cooking as a bribe (never ceases to amaze me what I can get folks to do for my chile and guacamole). In a nutshell, here's what I learned by age group:
30's - Women and men both understood the topics discussed, and related on some personal level to the posts contributed. Several women felt the need to emphasize that the whole "settling" concept had been overcome/broken. It was a lively discussion.
20's - Men and women framed their discussion in terms of "things they learned about in school" (i.e. history/social studies classes). It was mainly a discussion about "the past". Men were able to relate on a more current and personal level to the posts, especially the "zero-sum" communication. The only topic the women touched on at a personal level was the ticking baby time clock, and that almost immediately turned into a discussion about medical technology/health, and the differences between now and way back THEN (LOL - I so felt like a dinosaur serving food and drinks at the ripe age of 37 by the end of that night!).
11 to 18 - Let me sum it up with few quotes, "What are these people talking about?", "Why is this relevant NOW?", "Do they really still believe this stuff?", "Why does a man have to do the proposing; why can't I propose to someone?" (11 year old girl - from the mouth of babes comes wisdom as always...), and "I don't understand why people used to think these things." I sat back, smiled, and found this the most GLORIOUS evening of all!
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-04-05 05:21 pm (UTC)I did 5 years of psych research with Dr. F. L. Geis on gender/role/status theory at U of DE. In her memory, I just conducted some quick "research" using my brothers/sisters and some of their friends as subjects. My siblings and I span over 25 years in age ranges. Not very scientific, but fun.
I made 28 people sit and read this whole thread using my cooking as a bribe (never ceases to amaze me what I can get folks to do for my chile and guacamole). In a nutshell, here's what I learned by age group:
30's - Women and men both understood the topics discussed, and related on some personal level to the posts contributed. Several women felt the need to emphasize that the whole "settling" concept had been overcome/broken. It was a lively discussion.
20's - Men and women framed their discussion in terms of "things they learned about in school" (i.e. history/social studies classes). It was mainly a discussion about "the past". Men were able to relate on a more current and personal level to the posts, especially the "zero-sum" communication. The only topic the women touched on at a personal level was the ticking baby time clock, and that almost immediately turned into a discussion about medical technology/health, and the differences between now and way back THEN (LOL - I so felt like a dinosaur serving food and drinks at the ripe age of 37 by the end of that night!).
11 to 18 - Let me sum it up with few quotes, "What are these people talking about?", "Why is this relevant NOW?", "Do they really still believe this stuff?", "Why does a man have to do the proposing; why can't I propose to someone?" (11 year old girl - from the mouth of babes comes wisdom as always...), and "I don't understand why people used to think these things." I sat back, smiled, and found this the most GLORIOUS evening of all!
Cheers to progress all :)