Turkish women in academics


Turkish women in academics refers to Turkish women who make scientific research or teach in the universities in Turkey and abroad.

Background

During the Ottoman Empire era women had no chance to teach in the universities except for the very last years of the empire when Committee of Union and Progress came to power. The first Turkish woman who was able to teach in the İstanbul University was Halide Edip in 1918. But Halide Edip chose to join the nationalist forces of Mustafa Kemal in Anatolia rather than to stay in İstanbul. During the Republican era the number of academics increased.

Present situation

During the opening ceremony of 4th International Congress of Women Rectors in 2010, Gülsün Sağlamer, the chairperson of the organization committee, said that the percentage of woman professors in Turkey is 27% and this percentage is higher than most other countries. She added that the percentage of woman rectors however is only 10 out of 168 and this percentage needs to be increased. Since then, the number of woman professors is on the rise and in 2011-2012 school year, the number of Turkish women professors raised to 4729 which corresponds to 28%.
With other titles however the percentage is much higher. According to Times Higher Education a survey carried by Thomson-Reuters reveals that the percentage of female academics is 47.5% which is one of the highest in all countries.

List of some academics