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Discussion: Do Men and Women Differ in the Number of Children They Would Like to Have?
Jazmine Norwood
SOWK 300
McArthur
Tuskegee University
Homework 7 P a g e | 2
Variables
Role Name Label Range MD Dataset
Row CHLD2 IDEAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN 1-2 -1,9 2
Column SEX RESPONDENTS SEX 1-2 0 1
Control DEGREE RS HIGHEST DEGREE 0-4 7,8,9 1
Weight WTSSALL WEIGHT VARIABLE .4297-6.4287 1
Datasets
1 /html/D3/GSS06
2 /html/Npubvars/GSS06
CSM, UC Berkeley
Results
When looking at the association between how many children one may want and the sex of that
person, females and males wanted between none and two children. Makes were more likely to want
between 0 and 2 children by one more percent than women. The results showed that women were more
likely to want three or more children with a percent of 45.2% and 44.3%. Both men and women had the
Once a control variable was added such as degree, the results varied. The level of degree studied
was the education level of an individual consisting of high school, junior college, bachelor, and graduate
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levels. For those who went to high school more men preferred to want to have less than three children
with a percent of 58.3% and a female percentage of 56.0%. Upon looking at those who wanted more than
two kids, females had a percentage of 44.0% and men had 41.7%.
Males who attended junior college had a total of 60.6% of wanting less than three children compared to
58.8% of women. In the case of wanting three or more children males had a percentage of 39.4% and
women totaled 41.5%. When looking at those with a bachelor’s degree, more women wanted less than
three children and males preferred to have three or more children. Those at the graduate level had similar
results to individuals with a bachelor’s degree; women had a percentage of 62.3% and males had a
Discussion
It appears that the level of education obtained made a difference on how many children an
individual wants. On any education level the amount of kids wanted were not very different but the level
of education did make a difference on how many kids an individual wanted depending on the gender of
the individual. The lower the level of education obtained the higher the percentage of males wanting three
or less children. As the education level rose, more females wanted fewer children and males wanted more.
No matter what the education level, the percentages were higher for individuals to want 0 to 2 children;
the change occurred when women preferred to have less than three children opposed to wanting more
than three. Having a higher education may have caused males to have better paying jobs therefore
allowing them to provide for a larger family. The reason women with higher education may want to have
less than three children may be due to the jobs they do have. Having a better paying job would mean more
hours which would give a woman less time to have for children.
Conclusion
Whether a male or female wanted less than three kids or more than three kids, the percentages
were extremely close. The difference in the percentages occurred once the control variable was added.
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Upon adding levels of degree caused a change in how many children a male wanted compared to how
many children a woman wanted. The end results show that the lower a males’ education is the less
children he wants and the higher a females’ education the less children she wants.