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HW6: Paper Outline – Gender and Career Choice

Research question: How do gender differences influence the choice of career?

Begin to organize your research process and paper with an OUTLINE

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is for you to clearly organize the presentation and flow of your final paper/project. It should serve as a map that outlines the structure and organization of your ideas for your research paper. How are you going to go about exploring your research question? How will you clearly organize the presentation and flow of your research paper? There is a natural degree of subjectivity in how you organize your outline.

The completed outline (2-4 pages) should include, at minimum
– organized using Roman Numerals;
– a heading for each section and/or subsection

– inclusion of at least the following required sections: Introduction, Literature Review/background; Future Research; Conclusion
– a 2-4 sentence summary of each section/subsection that includes a note on how it is relevant to your overall research question or thesis;

– APA formatted full references for any sources cited in outline

Example Outline:

Research Question: How have changes in print ad portrayal of females over the last 15 years affected gender socialization?

1. Introduction – In this section I will introduce my research question and I why I am interested in it. I will identify any preconceived notions I have had about the research question. I will identify how the research question is sociological in nature and briefly discuss how the sociological perspective has been used to investigate it.
2. Literature Review [this will be the meat of your paper]
   1. Using Goffman’s theories and work to study this, body display in advertisements affecting gender behaviors from 1979-1991 (Yang, 1997)
      1. Methodology and analysis used –
         1. Quantitative: primary data analysis – from data collected by the researcher OR secondary data analysis – from a database; statistical model used
         2. Qualitative (e.g. interview, content analysis, observation)
         3. Level of analysis (micro, meso, macro)
      2. Sample size and composition (i.e. n=2,500; 90% respondents white females ages 21-48 drawn from a national probability sample)

• Identification of key variables and their measurement
  1. Independent variable(s) and dependent variable(s)
  2. Measurement: e.g. gender role attitudes were measured on a Likert Scale (1-5) from very traditional to very egalitarian.

1. Hypotheses of the authors
2. Key findings
3. Analyze strengths and weaknesses of article

1. Differences in affects of gendered stereotypes in print ads on gendered socialization in patriarchal vs matriarchal countries (Oderkerken-Schroder, du Wulf and Hofstee, 2002)
2. Reflection hypothesis to understand how gender role socialization is affected by print advertisements (source TBD)
3. Analysis/Synthesis of sources and how they answer my research Q

• Future Research – In this section, I will identify some additional related questions that came to mind during my research but were not answered in the literature I reviewed.

1. Conclusion – In this section I will recap my research question and key findings.

Reference

Henslin, J.J. (2008). Sociology: A Down to Earn Approach. (9^th ed). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Okerkerken-Schroder, G., De Wulf, K, and Hoftsee, N. (2002). Is gender stereotyping in advertising more prevalent in masculine countries? A cross-national analysis. International Marketing Review, 19(4): 408-419.

Yang, M. (1997). The portrayal of women’s images in magazine advertisements: Goffman’s gender analysis revisited. Sex Roles, 37(11-12): 1573-2762.