Evaluation of Attitudes Towards Gender Roles and Women's Working of Woman Health Professionals

Aim: The objective of this study is to evaluate the women health profession gender roles and attitudes towards women's work. Methods: This descriptive study was carried out with 351 female employees, including female academicians and nurses at the Medicine and Health Sciences Faculties of Selçuk University. The data were collected by using a data collection form for female academic staff and nurses, The Attitudes Towards Woman’s Working Scale and The Gender Role Attitudes Scale between September 2017 and March 2018. The ethical approval was obtained from the Faculty of Medicine of Selcuk University for this study. Results: The mean age of the participants was 29,97±7,52; the mean working time was 4,60±7,49; 59,8% of them (210 participants) were nurses; 40,2% of them (141 participants) were academicians. 72,6% of the participants had difficulties in their working life, 61,8% of them stated that their working life had a negative effect on their private life. In our study, the mean of Gender Roles Attitudes score was 137,14±27,19 (min-max: 38-190) and the mean of Attitudes Towards Woman’s Working Scale score was 53,42±8,62 (min-max: 15-75). The mean of Gender Roles Attitudes score of the nurses was statistically significantly higher than the mean of Gender Roles Attitudes score of the academicians (p<0,05). The mean of Attitudes Towards Woman’s Working score of the nurses was statistically significantly lower than the mean of Attitudes Towards Woman’s Working score of the academicians (p<0,05). It was found that there was a significant (p<0,001) and weak (rs=-0,208), negative correlation between The Gender Roles Attitudes and The Attitudes Towards Woman’s Working scores. Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that the nurses and academicians had "positive attitudes" towards moderate gender roles and working of women.