In
Turkey a women’s job is acceptable so long as it does not interfere with her
household duties and the common belief is that teaching is compatible with those
duties (Helvacıoğlu, 1996). Fathers both in rural and urban areas consider
teaching the most desirable job for their daughters (Tan, 1996). That is partly
because it is assumed that teaching will not interfere with their domestic
responsibilities and it is a prestigious job that is considered secure for
women. In line with these beliefs, teaching was the first public profession for
women in Turkey (Tan, 1996).
Today women
constitute 44% of the elementary school teachers. However, this concentration
is not reflected on the ratios in the administrative states of school. Only 3%
of elementary school principals are women (UNICEF, 2003). Higher up the
hierarchy, closer to the decision-making positions both at schools and the
Ministry of Education women are a real minority.
On the surface
level, Acar and her colleagues’ (1999) findings that women teachers come from
higher socio economic classes and are better educated compared to their male
counterparts at the same schools conflicts with the reality that women are not
represented equally in the administrative levels. However, a closer examination
of these women reveals that despite their high potentials teaching is not the
priority in their lives. They chose the profession as a strategy to cope with
their domestic responsibilities, which is the priority in their lives.
Paradoxically, their standing as women teachers reproduces the gender ideology
in the country.
Paradoxically,
the participation of women in Turkey in higher education has been comparatively
high in Turkey. Since the first years of the Republic the ratio of women in the
academia has been high when compared to other countries including the ‘first
world’ countries in the West. It was also striking that for years there had not
been a concentration of women in any field. This has been one of the gains of
the Republic for women. Yet, in the recent years, the trend in higher education
shows that there is a tendency towards the feminization of specific
departments, such as social sciences. The gap between the positions of women in
the academia in the West and the Turkish Republic is closing. On the one hand
this trend can be attributed to the upward mobility of girls from lower social
classes. On the other hand it may be the result of sex role stereotyping of
specific subjects. Either way Turkey will see further feminization of some
professions and the roots of this trend need to be sought in earlier education
as well as the society.
In her survey conducted in
Eğitim-Sen, one of the leading trade unions in the area of education in Turkey,
Sayılan (2003) found that 60 % of women working in the field of education think
that affirmative action for women to reconstruct the field of education is
necessary. 54 % of the same group asks for gender mainstreaming in all levels
of education. This trade union has been one of the institutions to work in
gender equality in the field of education. In the gender report of Eğitim-Sen
the measures to be taken for gender equality are written as such:
·
The
barriers against women and girls to use their right to education need to be
abolished.
·
To
achieve gender equality affirmative action needs to be taken
·
All
levels and materials of education need to be made free from sexism
·
Teacher
education programs need to be reassessed to incorporate gender sensitivity and
gender sensitivity programs need to be offered to teachers.
·
The
institutional structures of education need to be democratised and cleansed from
sexism.
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