IT Women in Turkey: Education and Career Obstacles

Women in Turkey are capable of representing themselves to some extend in computing field in both professional and educational life. However, there are socioeconomic, legal and personal factors which can limit the participation of more female workers in IT (information technologies) world. In particular, social perception and the predefined gender roles have very powerful impact on women when they make choices about their education and job. The picture around the world is not very different than Turkey. Therefore, all countries share the same concerns about increasing the representation of women in IT field. In this paper the overall situation of Turkish women about education and labor is presented according to the recent statistical data. Also Turkey specific reasons and the potential solutions for the question of small representation ratios of women in IT are discussed.