30, April 2025

The Leadership Choices of Turkish Academic Women: History, Status and Gender Action Plans

VOLUME-9; ISSUE-4; APR-2025

Author(s): Özlem Atay, Markus A. Launer

Authors Affiliations:

Özlem Atay,   Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Management, Ankara, Türkiye,  Email – ozkanli@politics.ankara.edu.tr,

Markus A. Launer,   Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Department of Trade and Social Sciences, Suderburg, Germany,

DOIs:10.2017/IJRCS/202504032     |     Paper ID: IJRCS202504032


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Abstract : The purpose of this article is to explore academic women’s choice towards leadership positions in Turkish Higher Education Institutions (HEI). The situation of academic women in Turkish universities is examined to show the necessity of preventive actions by Turkish universities (Atay, 2023).

In exploring the issue of choice, rational and intuitive decision-making literature (Launer & Cetin, 2025), qualitative data from pre-interviews, interviews, and document analysis using the Success Case Method (SCM) (see Yin, 2018) are undertaken in this study. The Case Study University (CSU) was chosen as the research site because it has made significant progress in gender equality in education, research and training. The data entails an empirical study of female and male university senior managers. Ethics Approval checklist has been completed and submitted to the Ankara University Ethics Advisory Committee. Ethics approval is secured before conducting in-depth interviews with six female and sixteen male senior managers in fundamental and applied sciences, social sciences (Rector, five Vice-Rectors, seven Deans, and nine Deputy-Deans). An external foreign expert interview was also conducted to compare the Turkish results with other European countries. The case study university has a supportive organizational climate for its gender equity policy. In order to encourage more women into senior roles, several support programs to build managerial skills, mentoring and coaching programs, or providing role models, even when an institution implements a gender equality plan, can be considered. As a conclusion, we state that the status of Turkish academic women is better than the status of European academic women. However, preventive actions are required to keep and foster the early support and boost by the policies of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the strong family ties.

 

Key Words: Academic women, Leadership choices, Turkish higher education institutions, Gender equality.  

Özlem Atay, Markus A. Launer (2025);  The Leadership Choices of Turkish Academic Women: History, Status and Gender Action Plans, International Journal of Research Culture Society,    ISSN(O): 2456-6683,  Volume – 9,   Issue –  4,  Pp.182-190.       Available on – https://ijrcs.org/

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