The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of attitudes displayed by nursing and midwifery students towards gender roles on sexual taboos. This descriptive study was conducted on 640 students who were studying at Health High School of a state university between January and March 2013 and agreed to participate in the study. The data were collected by using “Personal Introduction Form”, “Gender Roles Attitude Scale (GRAS) and the “Questionnaire on Sexual Taboos”. While 26,4% of the students were midwifery students, 73,6% were nursing students and the average age of the students was 20.65±2.04. 79,2% of the students were female, 35,3% were the second-year students, and 89,2% stated that they had an income equal to their expenses. The rate of those stating that the society they lived in had an oppressive structure was 52,2%; on the other hand, the rate of those indicating that there were taboos both related to both women and men in the society was 59,4%. While 92,8% of the students stated that the sexual taboos emerged due to the cultural structure, 74,6% stated that the sexual taboos emerged due to the religious structure. It was determined that while the GRAS mean score of female students was 144.68±17.99, the GRAS mean score of male students was 118.09±18.35; and the difference between groups was statistically significant. It was found that those who considered the statements “homosexuality”, “masturbation for woman,” “hymen defloration for woman”, “woman's having an extramarital affair”, “polygamous life for woman” and “woman cheating on man” as a social taboo had higher mean scores of GRAS in a significant way compared to those who do not consider these statements as a social taboo and these students had a more egalitarian attitude in terms of gender roles.