Gender role attitudes of family health nurses: The case of Antalya province

Objective: This study was carried out to determine the gender role attitudes of family health nurses working in family health centers located in five central districts of Antalya and the factors affecting them. Method: This study is of descriptive type. The survey contains 363 family health nurses working in family health centers. 323 family health nurses who agreed to participate in the study were included in the sample. The data in the survey has been collected by using the Descriptive Questionnaire Form and Social Gender Roles Attitude Scale. The data were collected by the researcher between September 2019 and February 2020. The data were evaluated using percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, One way Anova test, Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Family health nurses in research; 37.7 ± 3.3 (18-40) from the female gender role, 33.7 ± 4.5 (21-40) from the male gender role, 38.3 ± 2.2 (20-40) from the egalitarian gender role, 33.6 ± 4.5 (18-40) from the traditional gender role, 27.7 ± 2.7 (12-30) from the marriage gender role, gender in marriage they got a score of 27.7 ± 2.7 (12-30) for their role. The total score of gender roles attitude scale by family health nurses was found to be 171.1 ± 13.0 (112-190). It was found that there is a statistically significant difference between family health nurses total gender roles attitude scale averages and age, marital status, duration of work, having both girls and boys, and thinking that there is gender inequality in the institution where they work (p <0.05). Conclusion: It has been determined that family health nurses have egalitarian gender role attitudes. The Gender Roles Attitude Scale total score averages of those with less than 10 years of employment and those who encounter a striking situation about gender inequality in their institution are higher than the others. Education is recommended to increase the awareness of family health nurses. Key words: Gender, gender role attitudes, gender inequality, family health nurses, public health nursing