Gender Role Attitudes among Higher Education Students in Jordan

Abstract

Youth are the change agents of any society, therefore, it is critical to identify their attitudes toward gender roles. The study utilizes a social survey approach, where a stratified random sample is selected from the study population, which consists of Jordanian youth who are enrolled at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan. The size of the sample is 848 youth, with 33.5% (N=284) males and 66.5% females (N=564). A survey, based on two scales, is developed to measure youth’s attitudes toward gender roles: the gender professions scale and the gender skills scale. The study also examines the effect of the following variables: age, type of college, place of residence, monthly income, and educational level of the mother. The analysis uses statistical methods to recognize differences in attitudes, to understand the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, and to determine statistical significance (set at p ? 0.05). The results show that the attitudes of female youth toward gender roles are nontraditional in comparison to those of their male counterparts. Moreover, attitudes toward gender roles tend to be gender-balanced among older youth who live in urban areas, study in humanitarian colleges, and whose mother’s educational level is high. The study highlights the importance of institutionalizing the concept of gender in higher educational institutions.