The Reluctance of Women in Turkey to Take Up STEM Careers Due to Female Unfriendly Practices in Science Education by Elif Sarah Hearn
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, 2008 Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine and Physiology for her identification of HIV was asked in an interview for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings(1) website about the biggest barriers she faced in becoming a leading female scientist. Instead of material obstacles like lack of funding or equipment, Barré-Sinoussi gave a thought-provoking response.
“The biggest obstacle was certain people – men, of course – who discouraged me, saying [science] wasn’t a good career for women. This male-dominated atmosphere pushed me even more to persevere and succeed.” (2)
But is this picture of a male-dominated scientific sphere really accurate? Around the world girls are being encouraged to embark on STEM1 study. Indeed, the figures at first seem promising; 30% of STEM students studying worldwide are female, and in Turkey this is even more so at 45%. (3) However, these figures need to be put in context. Turkey ranked only 130th out of 149 countries for gender equality according to the World Economic Forum Rankings Gender Gap Report (4) with only 9% of girls finishing higher education. Most analysis on this subject has seen the issue as economic: more investment in girls’ education will lead to more women embracing STEM. But why do just 36% of Turkish female university graduates study STEM and only 9.91% of them follow science-related careers?
I would like to look at the question from a more psychological angle, including personal observations as a 17-year-old female student at a Turkish science and technology high school. A report in The Hindu (5) newspaper of 25th January 2020 explained why women were reluctant towards science-based careers, reporting research by Dr.Sapna Cheryan at the University of Washington showing females were deterred for three main reasons: over masculine culture, insufficient early exposure to science and lack of feminine role models. The problem has clear roots in school experiences. Another article in Harvard Business Review (6) stressed this was particularly true in countries with an underdeveloped scientific base. But are these claims really true for Turkey’s situation?
Research by Turkish academicians shows experiences in science education leave girls largely uninterested, especially towards physics and chemistry. (7) The Turkish Ministry of Education 15 years ago introduced a ‘constructive’2 approach with fun experiments and reading materials reflecting science in real life. However, lessons remain focused on isolated
1 STEM is a common abbreviation for four closely connected areas of study: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
2 Constructivism: A teaching philosophy based on the principle that students learn from taking their own experiences as the stating point of any learning process and build knowledge and skills on this foundation.
theories and formulae. Lessons are taught didactically3 without student input and limited use of ‘girl-friendly’ learning styles such as group discussion. From my experience as a girl in a class with a male-female ratio of 15:4, boys enjoy silently solving physics equations- this usually ‘turns off’ my female classmates. Teachers who ‘chat’ about scientific issues focus on male-interest topics-e.g. my English teacher showed us a BBC engineering-themed video called Toy Stories4 about upscaling toys to real size. Which examples did he show? Sports cars, fighter planes and warships! Examples chosen by male teachers reinforce masculine biases in science lessons. The boys in my class are respectful but follow a stereotypically ‘male-friendly’ path. The second point is related to the first; few teachers in my primary or middle school connected activities to real-life science. By contrast, I observed a cookery lesson at a historical museum called Beamish5 in England where a visiting primary teacher demonstrated how students’ grandmothers baked bread and the chemical and physical processes involved, bringing both genders equally into the lesson.
The final point is likewise valid. The lack of role models prevents girls from adopting positive attitudes towards science. At my school we are presented with masculine, nerdish figures like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs as ‘idols’. Having joined the National Biology Olympiads; I find inspiration from other sources. Meeting female professors from Turkish universities, and joining their lessons at scientific camps have influenced my views on women’s roles in science. The online talk by leading primatologist, Dr. Jane Goodall6 in which she outlined how parents and members of the scientific community provided her with female role models to encourage her to undertake scientific research into chimpanzee behavior in the 1960s inspired all girls present, including myself, that a scientific career is possible.
Having read popular science academic articles and reflected on my own experiences for this essay, I appreciate Turkey needs more women to enter STEM education. Despite economic and sociological barriers, I have shown the greatest obstacle is psychological and connected to male-orientated science education. By reforming lesson content and delivery and providing female role models to students, I am certain solutions can be found to ease women’s entry into scientific fields.