Evaluation of the Attitudes of Midwifery Students Towards Gender Roles

ABSTRACT

Gender is the whole of behaviors, responsibilities, and roles that society expects from women and men. This study was conducted to evaluate the attitudes of midwifery students studying at a university toward gender roles. This is a cross-sectional and descriptive study. This study was conducted at a public university in Istanbul between March and June 2015. The study was completed with 213 midwifery students. During the planning stage of the study, written consent was obtained from the ethics committee and the institution from which the data would be obtained. The “Personal Information Form” and the “Gender Roles Attitude Scale – GRAS” were used in the data collection. SPSS 21 package program was used in the data analysis. It was determined that the age average of the students included in the study was 19.85 ± 1.54 years, 33.3% of them graduated from a Private High School/Anatolian High School, and 38% of them studied in the first grade. The total score obtained by students from the Gender Role Attitudes Scale was 153.48 ± 17.44, and it was found out that they had an egalitarian attitude. It is observed that students who have graduated from a Private/an Anatolian High School have a higher level of scores on the attitude toward gender than those who have graduated from other high school types. It can be stated that midwifery students have an egalitarian attitude toward gender roles and that the education they receive has a positive effect on the egalitarian attitude.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• gender roles
• students
• midwifery

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the participants for helping with recruitment for the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).