Gender-role attitudes of university students: a cross-sectional study from Turkiye

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the gender-role attitudes of the students studying in the first year of different faculties of the same university and the factors that may be related to these attitudes. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted with the participation of 1080 students studying in the first year of five different faculties of the same university. The data were collected by face-to-face interview method using a questionnaire including “Gender-Roles Attitude Scale (GRAS)” and sociodemographic characteristics of the students. In the analysis of the data, frequency, percentage and mean values were used for descriptive statistics, Pearson chi-square, one-way ANOVA test and T-Test were used for comparative analysis. Results: The mean GRAS score of the students was 147.70±27.77. Medical students had the highest GRAS score while the students of Faculty of Theology had the lowest. While the GRAS scores of the students who were female, whose mother was higher education graduated, and who was a member of a nuclear family were higher, the GRAS scores were lower for those with low economic status and whose only mother or father was the decision maker in their family. Conclusion: Increasing the education levels and employment rates of women will contribute to the development of egalitarian gender-role attitudes of individuals. In order to reveal the effect of religion on gender roles more clearly, there is a need for new studies that will enable more detailed analyzes to be made.