Today in the United States, the leading reason for dog ownership is simply for companionship1 – and these companions
come in all different shapes and sizes. The question of why we pick the dogs that we do is a particularly intriguing one. And in a gendered world, the question of whether gender affects the dogs men and women choose is even more fascinating.
New York City has a population of almost eight and a half million people, which is about 52.62% female and 47.38% male2.
Out of that large population, there are about six hundred thousand dog owners which is also evenly split between male and female. We decided to see if male dog owners owned bigger dogs and if female dog owners owned smaller dogs in order to see if society’s expectations of gender influenced New Yorker’s decision to buy dogs. We surveyed five different areas with different gender populations and discovered the most popular dog size.
This study is important because, as feminists, we realize the significance of discovering stereotypes and biases we may have in order to eradicate them. Obviously, men having bigger dogs and women having smaller dogs isn’t a huge societal issue, but the underlying cause of societal pressure is definitely something to be aware of. Solving these issues must begin with solving the smaller issues of gender discrimination like the one we are investigating with this research project.
http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/seminar3posters/files/gravity_forms/1-f14ea90e75361cb91bd42582a860ee01/2014/12/Schiller-Margulis-Kessler-Meehan.pdf
Rina Schiller, Pauline Margulis, Jacob Kessler
Kim Meehan, Sara Martucci
Hunter College
gender, dogs, manhattan
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