Male and female university students' perception of feminism, feminist literature, and gender roles

Abstract EN

Higher education in Algeria has known considerable changes by the inclusion of the teaching of feminism and feminist literature where modern gender roles have been bloomed.

University students are exposed to read and analyse some different feminist novels in Literature classes that are written by famous feminist authors such as Angela Carter, Alice Walker, Verginia Wolf, Tony Morrison, etc.

The paper aims to investigate female and male students' perception of feminism, feminist literary texts and gender roles.

The perception of male students regarding modern female gender roles portrayed in feminist novels was studied by using a self-administered questionnaire to randomly selected 60 students from Sidi Bel Abbess university.

Results revealed that teaching feminism and feminist literature is a framework for female students through which to understand women's experiences in male-dominated societal institutions.

While male students still believe in patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity.

Male students were found to still believe in patriarchy and have more traditional opinions on gender roles.

Suggested recommendations are given to improve gender equity and equality.