The Role of University Education in the Determination of Gender Perception: The Case of the Gazi University

AbstractThe sociologists separate the gender in two parts namely biological gender and social gender. The biological gender points out to the biologic differences in male and female bodies. The social gender concept is defined in the literature as socially determined personality traits of both men and women as well as their roles and responsibilities. In the definition of social gender, not the biological differences but the values, expectations, judgments and roles relating how the society sees us, perceives us, what the society think of us and how they expect us to behave as a men and women. While the society expects the roles of “motherhood” and “spouse” from the girls the men are expected to fulfill the roles of “securing the household income”, “employment” and “success”. Within this scope, a study has been undertaken to determine the fixed judgments of the students who are studying at Gazi University on the subject of social gender issue and the social, cultural and economic reasons that effect these judgments.The study is realized with the participation of 837 students studying in different faculties of the university. In order to observe the affect of the educational institution on the social gender perception, the same questionnaire was used both on the first and fourth year students and their social gender perceptions along with effect of the university education on possible changes on these perceptions are discussed. Of the male students covered by the survey, 42.2% think that “women cannot be good managers”, 41.4% that “politics is not for women”, and 39.8% that it is better for women to work in those areas which are traditionally defined as women's areas. Our study has tested and confirmed the hypothesis that “female students have more egalitarian value s than male students”. Female students have been observed to be more open than male students to changes concerning gender roles.In our study, significant differences were not found between the first-year and fourth-year students in their gender perceptions. Consequently, the hypothesis in this regard has not been confirmed. The mother's working, as a determinant of her socio-economic level, influences her children's perceptions of gender roles