SWS says poll on women’s roles hasn’t changed since 1994 to monitor trends

As Women's Month began—with a congressman using the expression of desire for an actress as an "analogy", and another man saying women should dress modestly—the Social Weather Stations released the results of a survey on attitudes towards women in the Philippines.

The survey, titled "Opinion on the Role of Family Life in the Philippines," presented certain statements for the respondents, including, "A man's job is to earn money; a woman's job is to look after home and family" and "A job is all right, but what most women really want is a home and children."

A staggering 83% agreed with the first statement, while 75% agreed with the second, and a little over half the respondents agreed that "All in all, family life suffers when the woman has a full-time job."

SWS told GMA News Online that the statements in the survey have been the same since the research firm started tracking attitudes about women's roles in 1994, explaining that maintaining consistent wording is necessary to track shifts in public attitudes over time and across countries.

“There were no changes in the way the questions were originally phrased in 1994,” said SWS director for Communications and Information Technology Leo Laroza.

“The purpose of these items is to measure public attitudes toward women's role in the family over time and across countries. Because the questions are standardized, keeping the wording consistent allows researchers to track changes in attitudes both longitudinally and cross-nationally,” he added.

The clarification comes after questions were raised about how the statements used in the survey were developed and interpreted by respondents.

Laroza explained that the questions were not designed solely by SWS but were jointly developed by member countries of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP).

The ISSP is an international network of research organizations that conducts annual surveys on various social science topics.

According to Laroza, the questions used in the SWS report are part of the ISSP’s Family and Changing Gender Roles survey module, first implemented globally in 1988. Philippine data for the module has been provided by SWS since 1994.

The survey module is replicated in more than 50 ISSP member countries, allowing researchers to compare attitudes toward family roles and gender relations across societies.

Other questions possible

When asked why other statements about gender equality—such as whether women should decide what they want to do in life or whether men and women should avoid traditional gender roles—were not included, Laroza said such questions could also provide useful insights.

“Yes, I'm sure the questions you mentioned above would also provide useful insights. The best way to find out is to have these questions tested in a survey,” he said.

However, he noted that questionnaire space in international surveys is limited, requiring the drafting committee to prioritize which items to include.

“The questions cited in the SWS report were designed for replication in over 50 ISSP member-countries,” Laroza said.

Respondent interpretation

Laroza also acknowledged that respondents may interpret some statements differently.

One survey item asked whether respondents agree with the statement: “A man’s job is to earn money; a woman’s job is to look after the home and family.”

Asked whether some respondents might answer “yes” not necessarily because they support traditional gender roles but because they interpret disagreement as suggesting men should not earn money, Laroza said this was possible.

“That is a possibility,” he said.

However, he noted that the question had been pre-tested and implemented internationally in multiple survey rounds measuring attitudes toward women’s employment.

Meaning of “suffer”

Another statement in the survey said that “a pre-school child is likely to suffer if his or her mother works,” raising questions about what type of “suffering” the statement refers to.

Laroza said the survey does not provide a specific definition during interviews.

“We leave it up to the respondents how they define the word ‘suffer.’ No prompts or explanations are provided during the fieldwork,” he added.

The ISSP survey module is periodically conducted by member countries to study changing public attitudes toward family life, employment, and gender roles. — BM, GMA Integrated News