The relationship between social workers' perceptions of gender and their attitudes to violence against women

Gender is the meanings, roles, expectations, behavioral patterns and responsibilities attached to biological sex by society and culture. Gender leads to unequal power relations. According to gender norms, women are weaker than men and have to obey men, take on care responsibilities within the family, work in the private sphere rather than the public sphere, and if they are to work in the public sphere, they have to accept lower positions and wages than men. The fact that women are in the lower part of society compared to men according to gender leads to violence against women. Social workers are among the leading professionals in the field of violence against women. Social workers' professional practices are likely to be affected by gender perceptions and attitudes towards violence against women. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between social workers' gender perceptions and attitudes towards violence against women. A total of 480 social workers participated in the research conducted throughout Turkey. In this study, in which quantitative research method was used, the questionnaire form prepared by the researcher, the Gender Perception Scale developed by Altınova and Duyan (2013), and the ISKEBE Violence Against Women Attitude Scale developed by Tektaş, Işık, Aslan, & Kanbay (2017) were used as data collection tools. The data were analyzed using SPSS23 package program. In the study, it was examined whether social workers' gender perceptions and attitudes towards violence against women differ according to variables such as gender, age, marital status, having children, and having postgraduate education. According to the results of the study, social workers' perception of gender is positive. The attitude of social workers towards violence against women is negative and the experts are against violence against women. A moderate positive relationship was found between social workers' gender perceptions and attitudes towards violence against women. It was found that social work education positively shaped social workers' gender perceptions and attitudes towards violence against women in a way to increase their awareness levels. Keywords Social work, gender, violence against women