The Military in Turkey from a Gender Perspective

One of the aims of this study is to examine within a historical perspective the recruitment of women into the Turkish Military and the factors that affected the process. Women and men have similar motivations for enrolling in the military academies. However, their experiences in this institution differ from each other significantly. Because, women are the minority group in terms of their educational and occupational life, they have problems in the military academy and in the military institution in general. Their problems derive basically from being the minority sex in a masculinist institution. They have gender related, high visibility and solidarity problems. Besides, women face discrimination in the military institution such as discriminatory attitudes of men, occupational gender discrimination and glass ceiling is effective for the women in the military. There is not very much difference in the experiences of women from the different generations in the Turkish Military and they develop different strategies to overcome these problems that they face in the institution.