| Abstract
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This study is undertaken to assess how university students in the Republic of Yemen conceive of gender-roles. University students' attitudes toward gender-roles are contrasted along a continuum from an egalitarian end to male dominance and differences in such perspective/conceptual attitudes are examined in relation to differences in family socialization, schooling experiences, peer interactions, mass media exposure, and encounters while living outside Yemen. Theories related to gender-role differences that are seen as indicators of assumptions on which attitudes may be based are reviewed. These theories are biological explanations and sociological explanations that include functionalist theories, conflict theories, feminist theories, social learning theories, and symbolic interaction theory. In addition, factors that have effect on people's attitudes toward gender-roles are also reviewed: family socialization, schooling, peer interactions, and mass media exposure. The study sample is 160 male and female university students distributed among different classes in the Faculty of Education at Sana'a University. A cross-sectional survey research is used to investigate students' attitudes using two-part self-administered questionnaires: Part A, a Likert-type scale, and Part B, open-ended questions. Pearson product moment correlation, and multiple regression were used to examine the strength, direction, and significance of the relationships between independent and dependent variables. In general both male and female university students tend to have a slightly egalitarian orientation toward gender-roles. The findings showed, however, that none of the values of R2 in each of the dependent subscales, home vs. work, education, and public sphere, was significant. Also, none of the betas is found significant for any of the independent variables in relation to any of the dependent variables. While a few significant correlations between independent and dependent variables were found, it was concluded that the set of independent variables were not important in accounting for the variation in either male or female students' attitudes toward gender-roles. The two policy implications that are recommended are (1) more strategic use of mass media to effect children's gender-role attitudes, and (2) increasing and strengthening the significance of the school's roles.
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