Taşhan, Sermin TimurÇalışkan, ZekeriyaNacar, GülçinErgin, Ilksen Orhan2024-08-042024-08-0420172147-0634https://search.trdizin.gov.tr/yayin/detay/264248https://hdl.handle.net/11616/89730This study aims to determine the impact gender has on the spouse preferences of university students. Designed as descriptive and cross-sectional, the study involved a population of 2383 senior-level students at a state university. As the study was planned to include all students from the said year-level at the university, no sample group was selected for the study. The study ended up being completed with a total of 1491 students. Data were evaluated using the chi square test and the independent samples t-test. Results from the study found that in terms of spouse selection criteria, a good personality (94.9%) and a high educational level (56.6%) were more important to female students than they were to male students (p<0.05). On the other hand, having a high income (20%) and a good job (22.8%) were shown to be less important to male students than they were to female students (p<0.05). Sharing a similar religious identity with their spouses was more significant for male students than it was for female students (p<0.05). Of the female students, 71.6% reported that they wanted to have a flirting period with their spouses before marriage, while of the male students, only 61.2% wanted the same (p<0.001). Overall, female students considered income level and personality to be important criteria for spouse selection, while their male counterparts considered sharing a similar religious identity with their spouse to be more important. The differences in spouse selection criteria between female and male students were determined to be a consequence of the students’ understanding of gender normseninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessArticle63436441264248