PART 1. You can only select the topic related to your group. I will use another topic as an example! I chose Gender Equality. PART 2. The...

PART 1. You can only select the topic related to your group. I will use another topic as an example! I chose “Gender Equality.”

PART 2. The SDG I chose relates to gender equality within and among countries. Though we tend to consider gender a spectrum in the social sciences, there exists deep inequality between the broad categories of women and men throughout the world. Many of these problems revolve around compensation for paid and domestic labor, violence, access to healthcare, education, and other resources. I chose to look at women in the paid labor force in particular (i.e., focusing on the following report: https://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1770ILO%20Report%202015.pdf&embedded=true (Links to an external site.)). Reading this report, which analyzes data from the ILO Company Survey (information from ~1300 companies from OECD countries), I gathered that less than five percent of the largest companies in OECD countries had women in positions of power (e.g., CEOs during years 2012-2015). The reasons for such low representation include stereotyping, less inclusive corporate cultures, public perceptions of special treatment (like quotas). Norway promotes many women on the boards of companies after it introduced a quota system in 2003 (raising 6.8% to 40% of board members -- the quota’s top number). Of companies that participated in the ILO company survey, 80% had maternity leave policies, 44% had some support for childcare, but fewer than 30% made provisions for elder care. You’re welcome and encouraged to go into more detail about your subject of interest.

For my survey, I thought it would be interesting to get a sense of your opinions of women in corporations as well as gendered treatment of corporate workers. I would expect your response to be a little longer than mine -- I can’t give away all of the information!

PART 3

Variable 1: ‘Knowledge of women in positions of power” measured at the nominal level.
Question 1: Do you know any women who hold a position of power at a large company? For example, a president, partner, or chief officer (CEO, CIO, CTO, or CFO):
a. Yes
b. No
c. Unsure

Variable 2: “Corporate responsibility for gender inequality” measured at the ordinal level.
Question 2: How much responsibility should a company take for unequal gender treatment at the hands of families, the education system, and the healthcare system of their own cultural contexts? For example, should the onus of paid parental leave, family sick leave, or healthcare be provided in the absence of laws mandating such?
a. A great deal of responsibility
b. A reasonable amount of responsibility
c. Some responsibility
d. No responsibility 

Variable 3: ‘Number of children’ measured at the discrete interval-ratio level.
Question 3: How many children do you plan to have?
a. One
b. Two
c. Three
d. Four
e. Five or more

Variable 4: “Ideal paid parental leave” measured at the continuous interval-ratio level.
Question 4: In weeks, about how much time should a mother receive off after childbirth or the acquisition of a child (e.g., adoption)?
Answer: ____ weeks

Variable 5: ‘Perception of quotas” measured at the ordinal level.
Question 5: How much do you support the use of quotas to promote women’s participation in corporations?
a. I strongly support
b. I support them somewhat
c. I am neutral
d. I disagree with them somewhat
e. I strongly disagree with them

PART 4. One of the variables I would be interested in exploring further is “ideal parental leave.” I think that a variable that measures parenthood would be related to ideal parental leave because people with children may have a better understanding of the time involved in child-rearing while people without children may have less understanding. In this case, “parenthood” is the independent variable and “ideal parental leave” is the dependent variable.

EXAMPLE RESPONSE:

I found it interesting that you chose to ask about letter grade!  Here is a copy of your measure:

Variable 5: ‘Letter Grade’ measured at the ordinal level.
Question 5: What grade did you earn in STA 2122?
a. A
b. B
c. C
d. D
e. F

While letter grade is certainly an ordinal variable, I wonder if your response categories could have been more inclusive -- all grades were not created equal after all! Here at USF, the difference between a B- and B+ is very large and can affect a student's GPA. I may have re-written the categories to be more EXHAUSTIVE, by including pluses and minuses. For example, "A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, and F. Further, I also wonder if you might want to reconsider your stated hypothetical relationship -- maybe younger people might outperform older people in a statistics class because they can give undivided attention and aren't bogged down by jobs and kids yet! Though, I can see it your way also :)

You may also help your classmates adjust their measures to fit a college-level audience!!!