Men’s and women’s position in the family in the context of social gender roles

Abstract

Men’s and Women’s positions in traditional families differ in the context of social gender roles. Identifying and analysing the socio-cultural values concerning gender roles transmitted down to individuals through teaching is important in that they demonstrate the status of traditional values and unwritten rules which are alive in societies today. The study was conducted in the central quarters of Şanlıurfa and Batman cities. Firstly, men’s and women’s duties in a family, women’s position in a family, the way participants got married, and families’ value  judgements on families’ role in the formation of conjugal union were investigated in this research. The method of field research was employed in this study. The questions in the interview form were prepared as open-ended questions so as to be able to understand participants’ attitudes towards and thoughts about the issue and to go into detils during face-to-face interviews. The interviews with women which started as individual interviews later turned into group interviews especially in some quarters due to the fact that  the women invited their friends living in their neighborhood into the interviews, and spontaneous conversations occured. The women listened to each other and then responded to the questions but by defending their views.