Professional women's gender discrimination experiences in female-dominated STEM fields in Turkey from life-course perspective

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Sociology, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2023

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: ÜMMÜHAN SÖYLEMEZ

Danışman: Fatma Umut Beşpinar Akgüner

Özet:

rom a life-course perspective, the study aims to thoroughly examine the women’s careers who have graduated from the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), where female participation is high in Turkey. In-depth interviews were conducted to analyze how women’s gender discrimination experiences and their strategies during the socialization process in family, education, and professional life, covering childhood and young adulthood, shape their careers. The effects of gender stereotypes and discrimination in STEM fields on women's motivation and interest development in their career aspirations were analyzed during the early socialization period, considering the actors and mediators that affected the strategic decision to participate in female-dominated STEM fields. Subsequently, by maintaining and reproducing similar gender patterns in professional life, the barriers that prevent women's career development and their coping strategies have been revealed. These findings were analyzed from a feminist theoretical framework that criticizes the relationality of gender, science, and technology and the gendered structure of institutions. Beyond the women’s underrepresentation in STEM, the study revealed gender-based structural barriers and discriminations that restrict women’s career aspirations and growth, even in the fields where they participate intensively. Thus, a comprehensive view of women's careers in science and technology fields from a life-course perspective is aimed at considering the inter-structural relationality of family, education, and work.