Gender Role Belief and Feminism: Exploring the Perspective of Young Adults

Abstract

Gender role expectations exist in every country, ethnic group, and culture and have an impact on how people behave and how they view feminism in general. Religious convictions and ideologies also have an impact on these behaviours and attitudes. If religious doctrine favours conventionally established gender norms, it encourages gendered behaviour and sexist views. The aim of the current study is to investigate how religious fundamentalism and sexist attitudes affect young people’ perspectives on gender roles beliefs and feminism. For this purpose, a sample of 80 students was selected in the age group of 18-24 years. The participants were selected through purposive sampling and snowball sampling. The obtained data was analysed by applying t test and multiple regression analysis. Results revealed that there is significant difference in gender role beliefs and attitude towards feminism in male and female participants. The results further showed that both religious fundamentalism and sexist beliefs turned out to be relevant predictors of gender role beliefs and feminism.