Perception of gender diversity of students on vocational training

Making citizens more respectful of and sensitive to diversity means recognizing the sexist, stereotypical beliefs that still exist in our society today. With this in mind, the present paper aims to identify the presence of gender stereotypes among students on vocational training courses. It will also look for the existence of possible differences according to sex and the level of training course studied (general or higher degree). The instrument used for this purpose is the Gender Role Attitudes Scale, with a sample of 135 students on training courses at a public integrated vocational training centre in the province of Alicante. A Student’s t-test confirmed the existence of significant differences according to sex and training level studied. As far as sex is concerned, female students had significantly higher average scores when arguing for gender equality in a family setting and for joint responsibility in carrying out household tasks. Male students, however, had significantly higher average scores as regards sexism within the family, believing in a different way of bringing up children under the responsibility of the mother. Meanwhile it was students on higher training courses that had higher averages as regards the equitable distribution of household tasks. These results lead one to believe that gender equality awareness-raising measures should be introduced in the area of vocational training as a successful strategy for attending to diversity.