Abstract
This chapter aims to provide information about the situation of being female in the medical field and facing gender inequality. The medical education opportunities are put into the spotlight to see the possible factors affecting the choices and consequences. Apart from the traditional structure and the sociological analysis of the situation, the chapter also involves the results of two different types of research in the field. The data collection in general includes a close-ended questionnaire reaching 500 young females aiming to collect data in the field of education as well as face to face interviews with 30 medical field workers. The chapter is an attempt to prove that becoming an idealist person is the only solution left to the women to be and become a valued person in society.
Top1 Introduction
Planning a career is a primary problem not only in Turkey but also in the whole world, specifically for the girls. The lack of information, experience and guidance affect people’s choices and most of the young people are choosing their careers with the hope that they’ll be able to change it whenever they like. Due to the education system providing a setting for the future choices or blocked possibilities, people do not listen to their insight but obey the social norms. Furthermore, depending upon the marks of secondary school, high school or university entrance exams, students are forced to have certain choices related to their grades. Sometimes, even if they are very successful, usually their positioning within the bunch of others taking the same exam at that time could be a handicap.
The growing demand for the university education is another factor forcing the participants to choose whatever possible for the moment without thinking on more or develop upcoming strategies. Mainly, their marks throughout the high school education and their success in the graduate exams or university entrance exams could have a strange formula sometimes causing the ones to find themselves in the departments they have no interest, ability or capability. So, reluctantly they join the education system to guarantee their seats, assuming that they could somehow change it in future. Yet, it’s mostly impossible due to the increasing number of the candidates every year and the limited number of the seats at the university level. This might cause millions of people to have jobs in the future, not specifically chosen but handed by chance or suggested by the social norms.
Most of the people are suffering due to inadequate information and experience they have before deciding on what to do with their lives. In most cases, either the traditions or the chances help people to decide on what to become. Not all the communities or families provide enough chances to children regarding their career planning or choosing the best jobs they’d like to work. A recent study in Turkey provides information that 84% of the workers do not like their jobs and 72% of them are thinking of changing it whenever it is possible (“Çalışanların yüzde 84'ü işini sevmiyor”, Milliyet Newspaper. [online].[2018-01-08]. Available at: <https://www.milliyet.com.tr/calisanlarin-yuzde-84-u-isini-pembenar-detay-ask-1839058/>.). That means only 16% of the people like their jobs in general. With this result, it’s easy to think that most of the people are somehow forced to find better jobs and this usually encourages the migration in the country. When they lose their hope for a certain city, they’d prefer moving to other cities to find better jobs or create alternative possibilities.
However, the second university, Open University and distant education rates are high enough to make us believe that Turkey is a country still having high hopes for education; believing in that the problems could be solved through education. Most of the participants of these programs are not the new graduates of high school but the ex-graduates of another department or discipline, now enjoying the second university. That’s why in most branches, disciplines, Open University and distance education diplomas are equal to the others. Medicine on the other hand, in most cases is an area requiring more practice in the field during the education that’s why in general, it is the most difficult and most popular branch of all.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Job Skill: Certain jobs require a set of skills to be used in performing the job requirements. These domain-specific skills would be used only for a certain job and might take some time to be acquired. Skill usually requires certain environmental stimuli and situations to assess the level of skill being.
Problem Solving: It is an important skill to be considered in job satisfaction. It consists of using generic or ad hoc methods in an orderly manner to find solutions to problems. Some of the problem-solving techniques developed and used in philosophy, artificial intelligence, computer science, engineering, mathematics, or medicine are related to mental problem-solving techniques studied in psychology.
Employment Discrimination: It is a form of discrimination based on race, gender, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, sexual orientation, and gender identity by employers. Earnings differentials or occupational differentiation—where differences in pay come from differences in qualifications or responsibilities—should not be confused with employment discrimination. Discrimination can be intended and involve disparate treatment of a group or be unintended, yet create disparate impact for a group.
Job Satisfaction or Employee Satisfaction: It is a measure of workers' contentedness with their job, whether they like the job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such as nature of work or supervision. Job satisfaction can be measured in cognitive (evaluative), affective (or emotional), and behavioral components. Researchers have also noted that job satisfaction measures vary in the extent to which they measure feelings about the job (affective job satisfaction) or cognitions about the job (cognitive job satisfaction)
Equal Opportunity: It is a state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers or prejudices or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified. It requires the equal accessibility and evaluation conditions within the given circumstances.
Gender Inequality: Gender inequality is the social process by which men and women are not treated as equals.
Decision Making: In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decision making) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options, it could be either rational or irrational. Decision-making process is a reasoning process based on assumptions of values, preferences, and beliefs of the decision-maker.