Gender role attitudes and its determinats for women in Turkey

This study aims to investigate the predictors of traditional gender role attitudes using a large representative sample in a traditional patriarchal culture, in Turkey. It is known that social and cultural contexts shape the meaning attributed to gender role attitudes. Although there have been many societal changes, especially with the increasing number of women entering labor force, traditional gender roles are predominant in Turkey. It is important to study the gender role attitudes of women, because these attitudes are relected on many behaviors, such as parenting behaviors, marital relationship, and development of self. The data of the current study were obtained from a study that was funded by KOÇ-KAM and included a nationally representative sample of women in Turkey. The analyses presented here useda sample of 810 women. Women who had a child between the ages of 2-8 and who had a signiicant other living together were eligible for the study. Data were collected through in-home interviews. Demographic information about maternal and child age, marital status, economic status, educational level of mothers and fathers, urban/rural origin, number of kids living in the household, number of years of marriage, work status of the women, and whether anybody else rather than the parents and children living in the same household was collected. The results indicated that maternal working status, higher paternal education, higher socioeconomic status of the family, urban living status, and less number of kids in the household were the predictors of egalitarian gender role attitudes. Moreover, the interaction efect of maternal education and maternal work status indicated that, in case of non-maternal working status, the higher educational status bufered the negative efects of working status. The results were discussed in the light of the cultural background.