Limitations and Further Research

We faced several limitations while conducting our research. First, the respondent sample size for our study was a very small population. Had we reached a larger audience with our survey, we could have had more conclusive results in regards to having more equal representation of both male and female respondents. Within the small sample size, there was a disproportionate representation of male versus female respondents with 76% being female and only 23% being male (1% did not specify).  Additionally, when we asked our respondents if they knew anyone on welfare, knowing whether that person was male or female would have been supplemental to our research. When we asked questions regarding feminist ideals, we combined support for equal job and educational opportunity for males and females. There might have been a difference in answers if these categories were asked separately. Moreover, the survey did not provide the respondent with a clear definition of WIC. To get more accurate results, we should have explicitly clarified what the welfare programs were and whom they specifically benefitted. Finally, adding excerpts pertaining to WIC and food stamps would have provided more information relating to exactly how gender impacts the respondent’s support for welfare. Essentially, there is a need for further research within the field of welfare and gender. While our results cannot be applied to other welfare programs, there is an opportunity for research to be conducted to examine the impact of gendered attitudes on support for welfare programs such as unemployment, Social Security, and disability. 

So, What Does this Mean?

The responses from the survey manifested great significance in association to our hypothesis. When testing respondents experiences with single parents, we found that those raised by males were more supportive of male recipients and those raised by females were more supportive of female recipients. This data points to the idea that these respondents formed specific attitudes toward the gender that raised them. The attitudes formed reflect on their support for welfare recipients. When comparing genders, women generally support food stamps and WIC more than men do. This shows the general impact that gender has on welfare support.

Furthermore, when the respondent was asked about their support for equal job and educational opportunities, equal pay, and equal government aid for both men and women, we were able to conclude that there was a bias in attitudes towards a specific gender. Feminist attitudes showed to have an affect on welfare support. The respondents that identified with feminist attitudes showed more support for welfare than those who did not. This demonstrates the direct impact of gendered attitudes on the support for welfare and welfare recipients. There is a strong correlation between gender and identifying as a feminist.  More females self-identified as a feminist than males did. However, when testing feminist ideals, male feminism increased by 50% as opposed to a 44% increase for women. This indicated that there are gendered attitudes surrounding those who identify as a feminist. These gendered attitudes have an affect on how society views welfare support among males versus females.   

Overall, the gendered society that we live in definitely has an impact on how we view welfare programs, especially in terms of food stamps and WIC. According to our findings, attitudes toward gender, past experiences, and political ideologies shape a person’s judgment about specific genders receiving government aid. The data from the survey supports the claim that gendered attitudes have an impact on support for welfare. Gendered attitudes also display a trend in support for welfare recipients. Gender as a whole has a great impact on the support of welfare and welfare recipients.  

What Did We Find?

            The findings of the survey show a great significance in gendered attitudes and the impact it has on attitudes toward welfare.  When testing whether being raised by a single mother or single father affected support for single parent welfare recipients, the survey found that the respondents who were raised in single parent homes were more likely to support welfare programs that helped the gender of the parent they were raised by. For example, as shown in the graph below, out of the 11 respondents who were raised by single mothers, 72.7% of those respondents answered that they would definitely support single mothers, while only 45.5% of those respondents answered that they would definitely support single fathers (difference of significance p- .37).                                             

Moreover, when testing the significance of being raised by a single mother or father and the support for single father welfare recipients, the survey found that our respondents who were raised by single fathers were more supportive of single fathers on welfare programs than they are of single mothers on welfare programs. As shown in the graph below, out of the three respondents who were raised in a home with a single father, only 66.7% of them answered that they would definitely support single mothers, but 100% of them answered that they would definitely support single fathers. (difference of significance- p- .75). 

Analyzing for the general support of welfare programs showed significant change when compared to gender and those identifying with feminist ideals.  After reviewing the survey’s results, we discovered that being male or female has an impact on the general support for WIC and food stamps. Looking at the data from our survey, we found that 80% of the female respondents generally supported WIC and food stamps, while only 62% of male respondents generally supported these same programs (difference of significance p-.98). The respondents who identified with feminist attitudes (tested through support for equal government aide for men and women) showed to have higher general support for WIC and food stamps (See Figure 3). This is supported by our finding that 57% of people who identified as feminist had general support for food stamps and WIC (difference of significance p-.24).

The survey showed a significant relationship between identifying as feminist and gender.  As shown in the graph below, more females identified as feminist than males identified as feminist. 45% of our female respondents identify as feminist, while only 26% of our male respondents identify as feminist. (difference of significance p- .32). 

Respondents who identified as males were far less likely to identify as a feminist, and even less likely to if they belonged to the 50+ age group. For instance, out of the 12 respondents who definitely did not identify as feminist, 58.3% of them identified as male. Consequently, out of those 7 respondents who identified as male, 71.4% were aged 50 or older. Though this does not correlate directly to our hypothesis, this finding shows that there is a significant relationship between this older generation and feminist identification

Our survey responses also showed that people are less likely to show support for families on welfare programs than they are for single parents. The results showed that only 52.2% of the respondents demonstrated support for families on welfare programs, while a higher 68.7% respondents supported single mothers, and 65.7% supported single fathers on welfare programs. Going further with these results, our data showed that our respondents were slightly more supportive of single mothers receiving government aid than single fathers receiving the same aid. Though it is a very slight difference shown by our data, the difference could potentially be much greater with a higher quantity of respondents surveyed. Our results revealed that out of the 67 respondents, 68.7% supported single mothers, while only 65.7% supported single fathers.

Methodology

            In order to test the hypothesis we created a seventeen multiple-choice question survey.  We each shared the survey to our social media accounts in an attempt to broaden our survey results. We also asked our friends and family to take the survey. We chose a multiple-choice survey in order to expedite the amount of time to take the survey so that it would be easy for our respondents to complete in a timely manner. The independent variables in our research are ideology, age, gender, and the carefully selected welfare programs. The respondent’s attitude towards the specific welfare policies is the dependent variable of our research.

We ended up receiving 67 responses to our survey. In regards to the demographics of our respondents, 76% of them were female, 23% were male, and 1% chose not to specify. Our survey respondents’ ages ranged from 18 to 50 and over. The majority of our respondents belonged to the 18 to 25 years age group. Though there was some slight variance in location of our survey respondents, most of them were located within the state of Oklahoma. This was not surprising because we shared the survey on our social media accounts and most of our social media connections live in the state. Having more of a variance in the demographics of our survey respondents could have made a large difference in our survey results.  

            When deciding which questions to include in our survey, we chose specific types of questions that would allow us to test different aspects of general opinions that could potentially shape the respondent’s attitude. The first set of questions in the survey asked about the attitudes of gender in general in order to gauge attitudes reflected through feminist ideals. The questions asked included: support for equal pay for men and women, support for equal educational and job opportunity for men and women, and support of equal government aide for men and women. These questions helped us measure where our respondents stood in terms of their support for feminist ideals by asking questions that would be strongly supported by people who identify as feminists. We then asked in our survey if the respondent identified as a feminist. The questions that lead up to the respondent’s being specifically asked if they identified as feminist were asked to determine if the respondents held feminist values, but did not choose to identify as feminist. The second set of questions tested political preferences in the categories of ideology, general support for welfare programs, and support of different groups of welfare recipients. This set of questions asked how conservative or liberal the respondent identified as, and how supportive of WIC and food stamps in general the respondent was. We then inquired about which groups of people the respondents were more supportive of receiving WIC and food stamps. The groups receiving welfare that we included were family recipients, single mother recipients, and single father recipients. The final set of questions gathered background information on the respondents in order to determine whether their experiences, specifically experiences with gender, affected their attitudes toward welfare and its recipients. The questions asked to gain background information included: respondent’s age, gender, whether they know someone who has received WIC or food stamps, if they were currently a single parent, whether they were raised by a single parent, and if so, what gender of single parent were they raised by.

            In order to test our hypothesis, we ran a regression on the survey data.  If gendered experiences, such as being raised by a male or female single parent, compared to their opinion on welfare recipients show a significant change in responses, then the results would show that they had developed an attitude towards a certain gender. If this proved to be true, it would affect their support of that gender being on welfare. We used feminist ideals in order to determine if gendered attitudes existed. If people that are in favor of feminist ideals support welfare programs and recipients of welfare differently, then the results will show that gendered attitudes do impact support towards welfare programs and recipients in comparison to those that do not favor feminist ideals.

Our Hypothesis

We hypothesize that people’s attitudes toward gender will guide their support toward welfare programs and their recipients. This is driven by ideas generated through past opinions regarding gender and normative gender ideals that have continued to impact attitudes regarding gender today. For example, we found support of the gender gap in regards to the bread-winning regulations. Even if men didn’t have the means, they were legally forced to provide for their families and act as the “bread-winners”, or they would be considered dead-beat fathers. These regulations were all passed in an effort to potentially save money for the United States government. Instead of these women going on welfare programs for financial assistance, the financial burden instead went on the father. We concluded that this would contribute to a bias among men in terms of their support for programs benefitting women and generated a gendered perspective for the welfare system.

Understanding who and what each welfare program benefitted is also important in regards to our hypothesis. We assumed that more people who support ideas of feminism would also support programs such as WIC (Women, Infants, Children). As stated in previous research, women are more likely to support programs that benefit women. This idea does not only pertain to WIC, but also, as proven in an ANES study, it is more common for women to favor higher levels of spending on the poor (Conover & Lowery).

In another ANES study on compassion and American public opinion, it was found that women are more caring and compassionate than men (Steenbergen). The study also found that when taking away race and ideology, the likelihood for supporting men and women on welfare went up (Steenbergen).  Also, setting race and ideology to neutral the study shows that women and men’s support for government spending increases (Steenbergen). The study emphasized the exact impact of gender on these opinions alone.  While both men and women support increased, the female support began larger and increased more than the male support.   

What Does Existing Research Say About Impacts on Support for Welfare?

             Attitudes toward welfare vary in several different aspects and usually change over time. A huge indication of how the public will feel about government spending on welfare programs is how the economy is doing at that time. When the economy is down and the common middle-class is struggling, it is unlikely for those people to be in favor of government providing assistance to the needy. Kluegel (1987) studied the recurring behaviors of the public and their responses to welfare programs during times of recession during the 1970’s. His studies show how welfare backlash becomes apparent when the nation is in a prolonged financial deficit and how these opinions help shape public policies (Kluegel, 1987).  Public opinion of welfare programs can fluctuate as the economy fluctuates.

            When addressing the issue of poverty and welfare programs, it is important to understand the public opinions of who should be assisted. People may be supportive of welfare considering the circumstance, or just against welfare in general, but studying their attitudes toward welfare in regards to which side they stand on is essential. Research completed by Goren (2008) observes the focus of the public’s support of welfare programs considering the reasons behind the need for government assistance. The public unanimously supports welfare assistance for those whose economic stress is due to forces out of their control, but the same support is not given for those who have found themselves where they are due to laziness or lack of drive (Goren, 2008). Goren (2008) found differences of opinion among social class and race. Differences of attitudes towards poverty vary among races and classes, and considering the circumstances of people in poverty is important when understanding public support.

However, gender has a great impact on the attitudes toward welfare programs and recipients as well. When addressing attitudes of welfare support in the aspect of gender, attitudes of liberalism and feminism intersect to form the opinion. Reingold and Smith (2012) take an intersectional and additive approach to look at the relationship between how race and gender affect attitudes toward benefit programs. Only gender is looked at in the additive approach. Because most of the people receiving welfare benefits are women, it was thought to be a women’s problem. In this article the authors suggest that time after time surveys have proven that women tend to be more liberal when it comes to social welfare programs (Reingold & Smith, 2012). Because welfare affects women more heavily, they are more likely to support it (Reingold & Smith, 2012). Also, the gender gap could impact differing views on welfare programs.  Cook and Wilcox (1991) discover that because women are more nurturing, they feel more sympathy for the disadvantaged.  Could this mean that because welfare programs are framed to primarily help the disadvantaged rather than society as a whole that women will be more supportive than men of welfare programs? These feelings are possibly awakened in the process of becoming a feminist; this points to a gendered attitudes issue presenting itself as feminists versus non- feminists rather than men versus women. There are limited differences in gender values but there is an apparent contrast in feminist women values versus all men values (Cook & Wilcox, 1991). Feminist values were found to strongly correlate with liberal values and policy preferences. The research points to the fact that the gendered attitudes of feminists support liberal programs such as welfare (Cook & Wilcox, 1991).

Gender schemas show a great impact on attitudes due to gender. Winter (2008) writes that we understand race and gender through cognitive structures called schemas. The schemas contain information of race and gender, as well as knowledge of common social stereotypes (Winter, 2008). The schemas contain emotional reactions and evaluations of race and gender (Winter, 2008). Gender can affect the attitude toward a policy due to the information that is contained in a schema causing emotional reactions to that gender idea. Gender difference creates beliefs about appropriate roles and activities for men and women (Winter, 2008).  Winter (2008) states that people use these schemas to understand political issues when the issue is framed to fit the gender schema, even when those issues have nothing to do with gender. These gender schemas give rise to attitudes toward welfare programs and recipients.

Alternatively, society has implemented systems in the past that have caused gendered circumstances among the welfare process. For example, the purpose of breadwinner regulations was to help make sure that poor families stayed off of welfare programs. The bread winning regulations focused on men being the main source of income rather than women (Willrich, 2000). This forced the responsibility on the male rather than the government. These regulations were put in place to help women that were struggling financially as single income earners. Women showed more support for these programs because this would help them and all women (Willrich, 2000). As beneficial as this seemed, it only generated gendered perspectives for the welfare system and in turn, society. This can also be seen in Sommestad’s (1997) research on the male breadwinning system. The male breadwinning system relies women as caretakers. In countries where this system takes place there is less help for women from welfare programs (Sommestad, 1997). In Sweden, where women are seen as caretakers and a vital part of the workforce, welfare programs are equally utilized which in turn shows equal support (Sommestad, 1997). Sommestad (1997) claims that the roles of reproduction have shaped the state attitudes toward the male breadwinning system. If this is true, then gender has a direct impact on state attitudes of welfare programs, which will impact how the state frames welfare programs.

Gender has affected welfare programs and policies in the past and continues to affect it still. Regardless of those few men who do support feminist ideals and programs, there are men who support the opposite; there have been alternative welfare ideas created in opposition of women. Thomas’s (1998) article showcases this occurrence. Thomas (1998) looks at welfare reform more from a race and gender perspective. People in power, particularly men, believe that women take advantage of welfare programs and are a burden to have to maintain through these programs. The idea that women were “making money” off of welfare programs while continuing to have more children caused concern for welfare reform. One of these reforms was a benefit cap; this meant women could not have a child while they were benefitting from a welfare program (Thomas, 1998). While Thomas (1998) mainly looks at how welfare forms the perspective of men, but also points to the support of women. Sterilization and benefit cap legislation was created by powerful men as a solution to poverty and was not intended to specifically help women, and was therefore not supported by women. With this correlation of gender and welfare, we formulated our hypothesis around the idea that gender attitudes will impact welfare attitudes.

This Blog is About.....

Living in a society where 21.3 percent of the United States population participates in some type of government assistance program each month, it is common for there to be general attitudes regarding the people on welfare programs. Historically, gender has had some impact on shaping welfare policies and shaping opinions on welfare recipients. However, as gender has faded into the background of important issues, we wonder if gender still has an affect on welfare attitudes. Gender as a social construct relates to many social issues and has an impact on multiple political issues. Research shows that gender has a direct impact on humanitarianism, as women tend to be more humanitarian than men. Additionally, women tend to be more compassionate for the poor than men, which reflects ideas of welfare. These findings peaked our interest in exactly what the impact of gender has on welfare attitudes in today’s society. Having an understanding of what the welfare programs provide and whom they provide for is essential for determining why attitudes exist.  With welfare being an important issue in the political realm, it is important to understand how people form their opinions on the matter. Research has found that welfare attitudes are formed around race, social class, gender, and other aspects differentiating the general public. As a research group, we chose to focus on the gendered approach to attitudes regarding welfare. We asked the question: Do gendered attitudes have an effect on how people support welfare policies?  In an effort to answer this question we examined existing literature on the subject and surveyed a small population in order to find the correlation between gender attitudes and welfare program attitudes.