As you know, many surveys are published when it comes to the day of Women actually Working Women… Sadly, recently I realize STILL in my country some things haven’t changed at all…
One of my best friends have graduated from Biomedical Engineering and had her trainings & internships in some reputable hospitals. Now she is applying for jobs. She had two interviews so far, where she was rejected because she was a WOMAN. “Sorry we are looking for a male engineer, our job offer was open for male candidates”. Now, what does it mean? We say, women should study, they do, women become engineers, but what? Does it change the mentality we have? People think a man would be better engineer? How do you know that without trying? That is really being discriminatory. I have asked my classmates about this, what would happen in their country if such a situation happened. Mexico, Bangladesh said the same, Kosovo said if it was written “only male” on the announcement, it is OK, Italy & Spain said NO, that’s against LAW.
Another discussion that has been going at home is the ratio of intelligent women and men. My flatmate insisted that the men are overall more intelligent than women, as there are more clever guys around. Then supported his argument with many things, the bosses, managers in firms, the nobel prize winners, the founders of many new technological inventions ( including Facebook, Google, Apple). Then I told him that we cannot make a comparison as men and women do not share the same life quality & conditions. Especially in oriental culture. The conditions that are provided for a male are not provided for a female in general. We are living in a country where even some people hesitate to send their daughters to school. Then he asked me what about developed countries, why there is always a male dominance. The thing is , wherever you live, whichever level of civilization you have, women are always discriminated. In Europe, there is a huge wage gap between women and men, especially in Germany.
Even if there are laws protecting women, there is a traditional view of women giving a birth, doing the house work, taking care of the children etc. Many girls are growing up hearing that, sensing that and in the end internalizing that. We direct boys to a direction and girls to another direction. Women even gained their rights to vote recently , it hasn’t been a century yet!
So the question: “Then why there is soo few girls in Electrical/electronical Engineering then, if women are equally intelligent?” becomes absurd.
Even the religions make the difference. Eve was created from the ribs of Adam…which can be interpreted differently, it the internet I found nicely made justifications which says it does not mean women being inferior than man: “I chose the bone that protects man’s life. I chose the rib, which protects his heart and lungs and supports him, as you are meant to do.” “You were not taken from his feet, to be under him, nor were you taken from his head, to be above him. You were taken from his side, to stand beside him and be held close to his side.”, but in REALITY, do people take religions so? Men think they are better even because of that reason!
Lastly, we decided to look at chess players. Of course, there was again a male dominance on that, but we asked a chess champion friend of mine and he sent us two links where it talks about why women are behind men in chess, of course the reason is not their capacity, but how their parents lead them, encourage them to other activities etc. After that my flatmate said he was convinced at least, not to claim men being more intelligent now.
I found a very dramatic survey and I felt very sad when I saw my country’s position there, where women can justify their husband hitting them:
Another pathetic news: The widows will get 250 TL monthly from the government but if they were found out to have a boyfriend that they live with, this will be not given.
I love my government being the guardian of morals!!!
