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Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, Vol 35, Issue 2, 305-309
DOI: 10.3138/jvme.35.2.305
Copyright © 2008 by Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges
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Research and Education Reports

Historical Profile of Gender in Turkish Veterinary Education

Raziye Tamay Basagaç Gül• Türel Özkul• Aytaç Akçay• Abdullah Özen

Correspondence: Address correspondence to Dr. Raziye Tamay Basagaç Gül, Department of Veterinary History, Deontology and Ethics, Veterinary Faculty, Ankara University, Ankara 06110 Turkey. E-mail: tamaybasagac{at}yahoo.com.


   ABSTRACT
TOP
 ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
 WOMAN VETERINARIANS, 1935-1974
 FEMALE GRADUATES BETWEEN 1975...
 CONCLUSIONS
 REFERENCES
 
Women in Turkey were first given the opportunity to attend schools of higher education in 1914. Following the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, a number of social, judicial, and economic reforms took place that enabled women to participate actively in both the public and private sectors, and, as a consequence, the number of women students in higher education increased rapidly. The first woman graduated from the veterinary school in Ankara in 1935, becoming the first female veterinarian in the country. Since that time, the number of female veterinary graduates in Turkey has steadily increased.

Key Words: Turkey • veterinary education • gender • feminization


   INTRODUCTION
TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
WOMAN VETERINARIANS, 1935-1974
 FEMALE GRADUATES BETWEEN 1975...
 CONCLUSIONS
 REFERENCES
 
The status of women in public life changed dramatically within the framework of social reforms in Turkey in the second half of the nineteenth century. Where previously both boys and girls could attend primary schools, reforms during this period led to girls’ attendance at coeducational secondary schools.1,2 There was some social resistance to these changes, because the number of women teachers was insufficient and the teaching of female students by male teachers was frowned upon.3 The result was a law mandating compulsory primary education for all school-age children and establishing colleges of education for women was enacted in 1869.1 The first high school for girls was established in Istanbul in 1911, in response to the increasing numbers of women seeking higher education. The first institution of higher learning for women was founded in 1914 and offered courses in literature, mathematics, and natural sciences.2 Women were first allowed to apply for admission to the Faculties of Law and Medicine in Istanbul University in 1921.4 In the years that followed, the admission of women was extended to all branches of Turkish universities.

The first woman veterinary student transferred from medical school into the third year of the veterinary curriculum at the Veterinary School in Ankara in 1933, graduated in 1935, and became the first female veterinarian in Turkey.5,6 The worldwide feminization of the veterinary profession has been the subject of many studies and publications. The purpose of the present study is to collect information about trends in the number of female veterinary graduates in Turkey and to provide data to inform future studies.


   WOMAN VETERINARIANS, 1935–1974
TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 WOMAN VETERINARIANS, 1935-1974
FEMALE GRADUATES BETWEEN 1975...
 CONCLUSIONS
 REFERENCES
 
The first veterinary school in Turkey was established in 1842, became affiliated with Ankara University in 1948, and remained the sole veterinary institution until 1970. The second was founded in Elazig in 1970 and graduated its first class in 1975.7 Between 1935 and 1974, there were 163 women among the 2,705 graduates of Ankara Veterinary School (see Table 1). The first and last decades of this period saw higher percentages of female graduates than the intervening years (see Figure 1). The dip in the number of women graduating during this middle period (1950–1959) can be partially explained by the state of economic collapse and high unemployment in Turkey from the 1930s to the mid-1940s, which resulted from the world economic crisis in 1929 and from World War II.8,9 The number of male students attending educational institutions increased slightly during this time, but the number of female students dropped markedly, resulting in a decrease in the number of women prepared for higher education in the latter part of the 1940s.10 This decrease is believed to have had an effect on the number of women entering and graduating from Turkey's veterinary schools. An additional factor was the rise of the Democratic Party in 1950; this party, in power for 10 years, tended to regress from modern policies of education.10,11 These negative influences on institutions of higher education may have alienated women, but the numbers and percentages of woman veterinary graduates increased during the following decade. This increase may have been related to a more favorable social atmosphere, to the administrative autonomy granted to the universities by the 1961 constitution, or to increased scientific interaction with Western institutions after World War II.11–12


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  		Table 1: Gender distribution of Ankara Veterinary School graduates, 1935–1974*

 

Figure 1
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  		Figure 1: Gender distribution of graduates from Ankara Veterinary School, 1935–1974

 

   FEMALE GRADUATES BETWEEN 1975 AND 2005
TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 WOMAN VETERINARIANS, 1935-1974
 FEMALE GRADUATES BETWEEN 1975...
CONCLUSIONS
 REFERENCES
 
The numbers of veterinary graduates in Turkey from 1975 to 2005 and their gender distribution are presented in Table 2 and Figure 2. Analysis of five-year blocks reveals that the percentage of female graduates was 4.9% between 1975 and 1979 and reached 26.2% between 2000 and 2005, an irregular yet continuous statistically significant increase (p < 0.001). The increases varied by location: in metropolitan locations (Ankara, Istanbul, Bursa), veterinary curricula were predominantly oriented toward small-animal medicine, and the percentage of woman graduates increased from 5.5% (1975–1979) to 34.5% (2000–2005). The proportion of female graduates of veterinary schools located in smaller cities, where the curriculum is weighted toward large-animal medicine, increased from 4.1% to only 19.3% (see Table 2) over the same period. This may be the result of lagging rates of socioeconomic development in the rural areas where these new veterinary schools were established; this differential development probably provided a more favorable socioeconomic and cultural environment for women in metropolitan areas, as reflected in the apparent increased interest in veterinary medicine in cities.13 Further, ownership of companion animals has increased dramatically in metropolitan areas in recent years, creating a growing companion-animal sector and, consequently, new employment opportunities for veterinarians.14 Companion-animal medicine may also provide better working conditions for women, encouraging increased numbers of women to apply for admission to veterinary schools.15–18


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  		Table 2 Gender of graduates from all Turkish veterinary schools, 1975–2005*

 

Figure 2
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  		Figure 2: Gender distribution of graduates from Turkish veterinary schools, 1975–2005

 
The gender distribution of students registered between 2001 and 2005 at Turkish schools of the four main disciplines of medical science (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine) is shown in Table 3. The percentages of women registrants were higher at schools of medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy than that at veterinary schools during this period. This difference may be related to the greater employment opportunities, working conditions, social prestige, and economic advantages associated with these professions in Turkey, but there are no data to support this explanation. In other countries, such factors do not seem to have affected the rise in the number of women interested in veterinary medicine.18–21


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  		Table 3: Gender distribution of students registered in medical disciplines, 2000–200 521–26

 

   CONCLUSIONS
TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 WOMAN VETERINARIANS, 1935-1974
 FEMALE GRADUATES BETWEEN 1975...
 CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
 
Veterinary medicine, historically a male-dominated profession, has seen rapid increases in the number of female graduates in developed countries. The present study demonstrates a similar development in Turkey, with a continuous increase in the number of female graduates since the graduation of the first woman veterinarian in 1935, except between 1950 and 1959. The percentage of female veterinary students is greater in metropolitan veterinary schools than in those of the smaller provinces. Compared to other medical professional schools, veterinary schools in Turkey have a markedly lower percentage of female students. The veterinary profession in Turkey, however, does display a rising trend toward feminization, which is likely to continue, albeit at a slower rate than that of other developed countries.


   ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
The authors would like to thank Emeritus Professor Orhan Alpan for his comments and review of the manuscript and Dr. Yilmaz Gül and Dr. Gülçin Karas for their contributions.


   Footnotes
 
AUTHOR INFORMATION

Raziye Tamay Basagaç Gül is Assistant Professor in the Department of Veterinary History, Deontology and Ethics, Veterinary Faculty, Ankara University, Ankara 06110 Turkey. E-mail: tamaybasagac{at}yahoo.com.

Türel Özkul, DVM, PhD, is a member of the Department of Veterinary History, Deontology and Ethics, Veterinary Faculty, Uludag University, Bursa 16059 Turkey. E-mail: turelozkul{at}uludag.edu.tr.

Aytaç Akçay, DVM, PhD, is a member of the Department of Biostatistics, Veterinary Faculty, Ankara University, Ankara 06110 Turkey. E-mail: aakcay{at}veterinary.ankara.edu.tr.

Abdullah Özen is Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary History, Deontology and Ethics, Veterinary Faculty, Firat University, Elazig 23119 Turkey. E-mail: aozen1{at}firat.edu.tr.


   REFERENCES
TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 WOMAN VETERINARIANS, 1935-1974
 FEMALE GRADUATES BETWEEN 1975...
 CONCLUSIONS
 REFERENCES
 

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  7. Dinçer F. Cumhuriyetin 75. yilinda veteriner hekimliginin bilimsel bilançosu. In. Türkiye Cumhuriyetinin 75. Yilinda Bilim "Bilanço: 1923–1998" Ulusal Toplantisi I. Kitap I. Cilt. Ankara: TÜBITAK Matbaasi, 1999 335–368.
  8. Tezel YS. Cumhuriyet Döneminin Iktisat Tarihi (1925–1950). Istanbul: Tarih Vakfi Yurt Yayinlari, 1994.
  9. Kepenek Y, Yentürk N. Türkiye Ekonomisi. Istanbul: Remzi Kitabevi, 2000.
  10. Türkiye’de Toplumsal ve Ekonomik Gelismenin 50 Yili. Ankara: Basbakanlik Devlet Istatistik Enstitüsü Matbaasi, 1973.
  11. Aydogan M. Türkiye Üzerine Notlar 1923–2005. Izmir: M.E.L Matbaacilik, 2005.
  12. Dinçer F. A brief history of the relations between Turkey and European countries in the veterinary fields. Firat Üniversitesi Elazig Vet Fak Derg 3(2/3):169–175, 1976.
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  19. Lincoln AE. A supply-side approach to occupational feminization: veterinary medicine in the United States, 1976–1995, 2004. Doctoral dissertation, Washington State University.
  20. Van der Reis L. Causes and effects of a changed gender ratio in medicine. Med Teach 26: 506–509, 2004.[CrossRef][Medline]
  21. Stout CW, A degree of change <http://www.statcan.ca/english/studies/75-001/archive/e-pdf/e-9242.pdf>. Accessed 04/02/08. Perspect Labour Income 4(4):art. 2, 1992.
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This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
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Google Scholar
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Gul RT
Right arrow Articles by Ozen A

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