THE STUDY OF IMPACT OF GENDER ROLE ATTIDTURE ON MARITAL SATISFACTION OF EMPLOYED WOMEN AND MEN IN THE CITY OF SARI (NORTHEN IRAN)

The present research tried to identify the level of marital satisfaction of employed women and men and examine the effect of factors affecting their marital satisfaction such as gender attitude in Sari city, Iran. To this end, number of participants were randomly selected for taking part in a survey. After collecting the required data, they were analyzed and their results were presented. According to the results of present study, it was shown that women have more modern attitudes toward gender roles than men, and that men report a higher traditional attitude toward women, which is consistent with many studies also men had more marital satisfaction than women. Also, based on the results of current study, the most influential independent variables on the level of marital satisfaction of the respondents were gender of the respondent, acceptance rate of gender role (traditional) attitude, and the amount of division of gender tasks. Moreover, according to the results, the more traditional participants were the more they were satisfied with their marriage. Also it was revealed that with the increase in the level of perceived fairness of the division of household labor, the level of participation of family members in the division of household labor rose. Also, it was found that by increasing the amount of division of household labor between couples, their marital satisfaction improved. Lastly, this research presents the idea that the acceptance of traditional gender roles among couples as an important aspect of people's beliefs about marriage and family responsibilities and its role in the division of household labor can have a significant relationship with marital satisfaction. Therefore, by carrying out the present study, it was shown that considering the role of gender attitude and its impacts of marital satisfaction should not neglected and it seems there should be further studies to consider some other important factors, including women's employment and men's participation in household labor to reach more reliable results.