Women Engineering in Turkey: Case of Istanbul

Abstract

There are fewer women prefer the engineering fields compared to men. Many obstacles are existed which suspend women from the engineering, and examinations of three of them is the aim of this study. The obtained findings from the literature review results and based on the related studies held in Turkey and other countries, it has been tried to analyze the three obstacles: the existence of male-dominated organizational culture at work, the existence of the presence of lack of job satisfaction at work, and the existence of the work-family conflicts, that are confronting women in entering and remaining in engineering occupations. In the application part of this research, via the findings from the literature, the survey covers 112 women employees graduated from the engineering domain. The research was done particularly in the city of Istanbul, Turkey. From the answers of the participants, it has been attempted to find out their views, feelings and opinions about the existence of the three barriers are mentioned above, according to their demographic peculiarities. The finding are showed that these reasons, which are the existence of the men-dominated organizational culture, the presence of lack of job satisfaction, and the work-family conflict are existed and confronted women from entering and remaining in engineering occupations.