University Students' Attitudes Towards Gender Roles Predicting Their Value Orientation

Abstract

An individual's gender determines his position in the society he lives in. According to the social role theory, the differences between the behaviours of women and men can be explained by gender stereotypes and social roles. Value and attitudes go hand in hand. It is noteworthy that the individual has gained or possessed in the situation that causes these attitudes to occur. Therefore, in this research, the goal is to examine to what degree the attitudes of university students towards gender roles predict their value orientation. The participants are comprised 252 undergraduate students in a state university in Turkey and a private university in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus during the academic year 2020-2021. Using the required sampling process, which is one of the non-random sampling techniques, the test sample was calculated. The data of the study were collected in the Social "Gender Roles Attitude" Scale and the "Portrait Value Scale". In the data analysis of the research, in variables that do not show a normal distribution, t-test was used and the relationship of variables with each other was analysed using Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation. Later, based on this relationship, multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine whether the variables predicted each other and if yes, to what extent they do so. The attitudes towards gender roles subscales and meaning orientations were shown to have a statistically positive meaningful association. It was found that the relation between the traditional gender roles sub-dimension of attitude to gender roles and meaning orientations was positively significant. The explanatory perception of the deserving preference of university students towards "traditional gender role" is very strong. Within the framework of the study findings, the related literature was addressed and necessary recommendations were made.