Data were collected on annual personal time (in hours) taken by a random sample of 16 women (group 1) and 7 men (group 2) employed by a medium-sized company. the women took an average of 24.75 hours of personal time per year with a standard deviation of 2.84 hours. the men took an average of 21.89 hours of personal time per year with a standard deviation of 3.29 hours. the human resources department believes that women tend to take more personal time than men because they tend to be the primary child caregivers in the family. the results of the test are t=2.02 with an associated p-value of 0.0352. the correct conclusion at α = 0.05 is to:

a. reject the null hypothesis.
b. fail to reject the null hypothesis.
c. conclude that women take a higher average number of hours of personal time per year compared to men.