An Analysis of Female University Students’ Attitudes towards Gender Equality and the Associated Factors

The emergence of feminism, movement of women and consequently, ever-increasing presence of women in the society, and social evolutions, as well as egalitarianism and development of egalitarian values, especially among women, have significantly increased to the point that women want to play a more prominent role in various facets of the society today. Gender equality has been described as equal rights and responsibilities for men and women and equality in all opportunities in the society. Gender equality and the sense of equality can boost the motivation for community activities and efforts, especially among women, besides being a milestone for the presence of women in different social, political, and cultural fields. Additionally, women’s positive perspective toward gender equality in the public and private spheres of their lives enhances social livelihood, feeling of being seen, and lack of social discrimination among women, thus laying the ground for their activities in social, cultural, and economic levels in the society. It appears that an increase in the levels of social awareness and education can play a significant role in forming egalitarian beliefs and views among women. Therefore, with the assumption that this is the case, in this research, we attempted to analyze the egalitarian viewpoint and some of the factors affecting it among female university students. This study aimed to answer the following questions: Do female university students’ levels of education and ages affect their egalitarian views? Considering the effect of socialization along with social beliefs and values, do the girls have some views on matters, such as marriage and relationship with boys, as well as individualistic views associated with their egalitarian views?

This research was based on qualitative methodology. It was an applied survey. The questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. Hence, the data in this analysis was the result of a cross-sectional survey. that They were gathered through a structured questionnaire conducted in 2019. The statistical population consisted of the female university students of faculties of Technical and Engineering, Humanities, Basic Sciences, Art, Foreign Languages, and Physical Education. They were studying as undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. students at Tehran University in 2019. The sample size was estimated to be 379 by using Cochran formula. Upon predicting the possibility that not all the questionnaires would be filled out and there would be a drop in the number of the students, the sample size was risen up to 400 people. To determine the essential samples, we applied stratified relative sampling and simple random sampling in this research.To analyze the research data, we utilized SPSS, as well as multivariate and bivariate tests. To examine and test the research hypotheses, we first conducted a bivariate analysis and then a multivariate analysis. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to assess the bivariate correlation between the dependent variable, which was an interval (the female university students’ egalitarian views, and the independent variables of age, education, individualism, view toward relationships between girls and boys, and interest in marriage at an interval scale. Furthermore, as both the dependent and independent variables were interval, a multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to have a multivariate assessment between the dependent and independent variables.

The research results revealed that age and education had a significant correlation with the female university students’ egalitarian views. This meant that egalitarian views among the female university students increased with age and education. Additionally, the findings indicated that there was a significant correlation of the girls and boys with egalitarian views. The correlation of individualism and interest in marriage with egalitarian views was significant too. According to the findings, individualism had an inverse correlation with egalitarian views, namely positive egalitarian views increased as individualism declined among the students. Moreover, the results demonstrated that there was a significant correlation between interest in marriage and egalitarian views among the girls, i.e., egalitarian views increased as interest in marriage rose up.Due to this different finding, the inverse correlation between individualism and egalitarian views requires more investigation and a qualitative research is recommended for achieving a more precise analysis. Nonetheless, in the evolving community of Iran, it appears that women and girls’ demands for gender equality have increased due to changes in the society. They want a more prominent share of the society in different social, economic, and political fields. Despite socialization, i.e., the theory of gender socialization, and internalization of values and norms, girls still hold values for marriage and are interested in starting a family. The changes in the values and modern beliefs among girls are significant and have revealed not only individualistic values and positive views on the relationship between girls and boys, but also women’s views on gender equality. Furthermore, they have been manifested under the influence of social context and values in the society.