Gender roles attitude among high school teachers of Lahore, Pakistan: traditional vs. egalitarian

Abstract

The gender roles attitude is behaviour towards allocated roles to males and females in a society or culture at a particular time. Teachers significantly influence shaping gender roles and attitudes in students and parents. The study is designed to investigate gender roles and attitudes among high school teachers. The study is focused on the positivist trend of quantitative research, and a cross-sectional survey was applied. The main objective is to examine gender roles and attitudes, both traditional and egalitarian, among teachers from Govt. higher secondary schools in Lahore, Pakistan. A multi-stage stratified random sampling procedure sampled a total of N=304 teachers. A gender roles attitude scale was adopted for data collection on traditional and equalitarian gender roles attitudes. Statistical independent t-tests and frequencies/percentages were applied to investigate the data and were systematically tabulated. The findings showed substantial variances in the attitudes of female and male teachers toward gender roles, as female teachers showed an egalitarian attitude toward gender roles. In contrast, male teachers showed a traditional gender roles attitude. The study recommended that awareness campaigns be organised at the school level, and the media should raise awareness about gender roles and attitudes among people.