Abstract:
Previous studies in Bangladesh lack in investigating the influence of educational attainments on
gender ideology among the public university students. This study aims to estimate the association
between educational attainments and gender ideology among public university students in
Bangladesh. To assess the relationship, this study followed a quantitative research methodology.
In total, 908 students were included following the cluster sampling from five purposively selected
public universities. Both male and female students participated and were interviewed after verbal
consent. A structured interview questionnaire was distributed to collect data. Students’ educational
attainment was measured by three variables: i) total GPA of SSC and HSC, ii) stream/
group of HSC education and iii) participation of any gender related course or class. Gender
ideology was measured using a 28-item Likert-type attitude towards women scale. Collected
data were analyzed through SPSS-23 software. The study protocol was approved by the Faculty
of Social Sciences, University of Rajshahi. This study showed that the students’ educational
attainment had no significant influence on students’ gender ideology. This study found that
mothers’ higher education was associated with the students’ more egalitarian gender ideology
and students’ mothers’ lower education was associated with the students’ more conservative
gender ideology. This study also revealed that female students were more likely to hold an
egalitarian gender ideology than male students. The study findings concluded that university
student’s sex, their parent’s education is associated with their gender ideology. Policy makers
should consider parent’s education to promote egalitarian gender attitudes among the university
student Bangladesh.
