The Validity and Reliability Study Of The Turkish Version Of The Hostility Toward Women Scale

Problematic and prejudiced attitudes and behaviors such as sexism, gender apartheid, gender-based
violence and misogyny are maintained and strengthened by the influence of gender perception arising
from social and cultural norms. In this regard misogyny, which is shaped and fed by the hatred and
prejudice against women, leads to social problems such as gender inequality, sexism, and gender
apartheid. Feminist theories and naturally feminist practices focus on these concepts, referring to these
concepts as the main reason for women’s problems both individually and socially. For this reason, there
is a need for researches to reduce eliminate gender inequality and the attitudes, behaviors, actions and
practices related to misogyny which have been created and built by the social order. To contribute the
need and pave the way for subsequent studies, the aim of this study is to determine reliability and
validity of the Turkish version of Hostility Toward Women Scale which was developed by Check et al.
(1985) and revised as 10 items by Lonsway and Fitzgerald (1995). The sample of this study consists of
455 students studying in department of social work of Karabuk University (N = 336) and Kirikkale
University (N = 119). Exploratory factor analysis was applied to determine the factor structure of the
Hostility Toward Women Scale. According to the results obtained, it was determined that the scale has a
three-dimensional structure different from the original. However, it was decided to be limited to one
dimension as in the original version due to the three-dimensional structure does not meet the reliability
values. It was determined that the one-dimensional structure explained 33.85% of the total variance and
the item loading values ranged from .40 to .71. The Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient of
the Hostility Toward Women Scale was calculated as .78. The relationship between the Hostility Toward
Women Scale and the Gender Perception Scale was examined to determine the concurrent validity of the
Hostility Toward Women Scale and it was found a negative and significant correlation between them (r
= -0.33, p <0.001). According to these results, it can be said that the reliability of the single-factor
structure of Hostility Toward Women Scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool which can be used
for other similar studies and measuring the high and same behavior.