The perception of social gender and affecting factors between the ages of 20-65: Mardin example

Aim: Gender a health determiner for the individuals and especially for the women. This study has been made to determine the gender perception level of people who live in Mardin and to identify the affecting factors. Material and Method: Study is cross-sectional. Its population consists of 86245 people living in Artuklu district between the ages of 20-65. Sample size was calculated as 1055 people with a 95% confidence interval according to the OpenEpi.com program with the expected prevalence taken as 50% ± 3%. After weighting according to the population of the Family Health Unit, the individuals to be surveyed were selected with a systematic sample. The number of individuals reached is 990 (participation rate 93.8%). In the first part of the study, a questionnaire including demographic information and Gender Perception Scale (TCAO) was applied by face-to-face interview. In the second part, extensive interviews were made with Assyrians. The data has been evaluated with a statistical package programme and statistical frequency dispersion, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, percentages have been calculated, t-test, tukey test, chi-square test have been made. Results: In this study, the average age of individuals is 33,27 and %67,2 of them are women. %15,4 of the individuals are illiterate and %30,0 of them are primary school graduates. %35,4 of them has a job with an income, %69,7 of them are married and the average age of marriage is 21,18. The percentage of pre-arranged marriages is %41,4. The TCAÖ point is approximately 79,34. Some factors like age, sex, marital status, spouse's working status, working status, having children, kinship with the spouse, place of birth, economic conditions, languages spoken at home, educational background, educational background of parents, the place they live are important in the development of the perception of gender (P<0,05). In the interviews made with Assyrians, similarities between them and Arabs, Kurds and Turks has been determined with regards of gender perception and affecting factors. Conclusion: The TCAÖ average points are low in Artuklu, Mardin. The socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the region must be taken into consideration and necessary actions must be taken in cooperation with civil society organisations, public institutes and press. Key Words: Mardin, Woman, Man, Gender, Perception