Abstract:

Gender is the hot issue in Taiwan and schools from the elementary to college levels must cater to the evaluation standard of Ministry of Education. Before conducting the necessary gender activities for college students, there is a need to understand the current status in the University. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the gender role, attitude, and knowledge related to gender regulations among college students of southern Taiwan. This is a survey study approved by the gender equality education committee and conducted from 9, 2008 to 12, 2009 among freshmen in the University of Southern Taiwan. The survey questionnaire was developed by the investigator through content evaluation by the experts both in the women group and in the gender equality education committee. Total 1638 freshmen in the Schools of Nursing, Medical and Health Sciences, Environmental and Life Sciences, and College of Humanities and Management, including master, two, three, and four years programs, and associate degree, participated in the study. The majority of students aged from 16 to 20, female (84%), and never took gender related course (83.2%). However, 70% of them have heard the gender lecture, 84.7% felt equality in the school, and 88.9% considered the school as valuing gender. Among 1638 freshmen, 92.4% favored their own gender, first understanding their gender tendency during kindergarten and elementary, but lately influencing by parents and peers. The majority of students considered the gender did not influence their academic achievement, partners and job selecting, and dream coming true. Besides, the majority of students thought gender equality among continuing education, sharing housework, playing a parent role, being hired and taking job responsibilities, promotion, and the opportunity to be leaders; however, more females were tending to play a good parent roles and males were more than females in the rest of items. In terms of 10 knowledge questions relate to gender regulations, only 70% answered correct about the baby-sister holiday, the rest of questions were responded wrongly. When sex-harassment happened, the majority of students were asked their advisers for helps since the majority of freshmen cannot distinguish the differences of sex harassment among regulations of Gender Equality in Employment Act, Gender Equality Education Act, and Sexual Harassment Prevention Law. Although the majority of freshmen was satisfied their gender roles and perceived gender equality in this study, it still recommended that the school provided the gender related course or continuing education, especially focused on the regulations of Gender Equality in Employment Act, Gender Equality Education Act, and Sexual Harassment Prevention Law, to clarify the differences of three gender regulations.

Keywords:

Gender Role, Gender Attitude, Gender Knowledge, Gender Regulations.