Independent Variables

This research paper examined the following independent variables:
• Women who are married vs. women who are not married (single, widowed, divorced).
• Women who work for pay outside the home vs. women who do not work outside the home for pay.  (A preliminary review of the data indicated that this variable had little or no measurable effect on attitudes towards women’s roles, so it was excluded from the final analysis.)
• Highest level of education completed (scale based on number of years of education completed—for example, a woman who graduated from high school, but did not attend college or receive further formal education was coded as having received 18 years of education). 
• Political party affiliation.  This was treated as a six-point scale:
            Strong Democrat
            Not very strong Democrat
            Independent, close to Democrat
            Independent, close to Republican
            Not very strong Republican
            Strong Republican

For the purposes of this analysis, the respondents who selected some other party affiliation, refused to say, answered don’t know, or gave no answer were excluded from the analysis.  The scale was used as an approximation of a range of political outlook from political conservativism (strong Republican) to political liberalism (strong Democrat).