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In deciding how to conceptualize social status, we would certainly review the literature on how social status has been defined and measured in studies similar to the one we are planning. In reviewing dimensions to measure, we would also consider how practical it would be to collect data for any dimension we are considering. Of the dimensions mentioned above, getting data on the men's levels of schooling or their occupations would be easier than trying to measure how extended families are ranked or how members of the community view the power of various families. Practical considerations in obtaining data frequently decide which dimensions are selected and how they are measured. In our case, we decided to focus on social status as unique to each man and one not dependent on the views given to his extended family or the power of the family in the community. The process of conceptualizing social status is shown on the left side of Figure 6.1. Conceptualizing attitudes Identifying dimensions for the concept of male/female equality is a more complex task. No matter how we define this concept, we would find that it embraces a number of dimensions. Hassan and colleagues (1988), you will recall, identified and measured seven dimensions of attitudes toward male/female equality. Julia and Ridha (2001) used six dimensions for the closely related concept of husband-wife decision-making. The question of how many or which dimensions to measure, illustrates again how practical considerations enter into research design and the selection of indicators. We have to decide whether the research question we are investigating requires measurement of all possible dimensions or whether selection of just a few dimensions would be sufficient for our purposes. For many investigations, a few well chosen dimensions and their indicators are enough to demonstrate any association the investigator is seeking. We could, therefore, select only a few dimensions of male/female equality for the purposes of our study. The choice is ours, but we would have to provide a reason for choosing whatever dimensions we decided to measure. Let's say we decided to limit measurement to attitudes with regard to equity in the right of women to schooling, in marriage relationships, and to work outside the house because we think these are the most critical ones. The right side of Figure 6.1 shows the results of conceptualization for the concept of attitudes toward male/female equity. Operationalizing concepts Following conceptualization, our next step is to select indicators for each of the dimensions of concepts we choose to measure. As shown in Figure 6.1, we decided to use two indicators for measuring our selected dimension of social status; namely, years of schooling and the status of the occupations of the respondents. Each is widely recognized as an indicator of social status. Operationally, we defined each by a single item on a questionnaire; one item asked how many years of schooling each respondent had completed; the other asked for his main occupation. For the dimensions of gender equality in schooling and in work roles, we also decided to use only one indicator, operationalized as a single questionnaire item. Two indicators were selected for measuring equality in marriage, one based on observation of how much equality is reflected in the everyday interaction between husbands and wives and the other based on responses to a set of questions asking for the men's views on how much equality there should be between husbands and wives in various daily activities, such as raising children, deciding what to buy, who to visit, etc. Establishing relationships The six indicators would become the measures used in the investigation of the relationship between men's social status and their attitudes toward male/female equity. Responses to the indicators become the data for the study. These data would be analyzed to establish the degree of association between each indicator of social status with each indicator of attitudes. With two indicators for social status and four for measuring different dimensions of attitudes toward female equity, the analysis would involve eight relationships, as shown in Figure 6.2. Part 4 of this book describes ways these relationships are measured. |