The interview began with Dr. Ozturk posing a few questions
for us in relation to the statistics of gender distribution in the ECE department.
She mentioned that of ECE students at NCSU there is a 6% female population and
a less than 10% female population for tenure track female professors. This is
easy for us to believe as we witness it every day in our classes, but students
outside engineering may be shocked at how low the actual numbers are. The
natural question after absorbing these statistics is: why? Dr. Ozturk’s
explanation began with a comparison to biomedical engineering majors (where Dr.
Ozturk is currently a teaching associate professor), where the male/female
ratio of students is 50/50. She says this is because biomedical engineers
interface their products to people, whereas electrical/computer engineers
interface their products one layer below, to signals and circuits. The latter
is much harder to relate to and practically has no face, which indeed follows
in line with general ECE course material of abstract and imaginary math.
Our first real interview-like question to her (after her
brief interview of us!) was in relation to Carol Cohn’s article Sex and Death in the Rational World of
Defense Intellectuals. Cohn is intrigued by the language that is used by
the men there, and defines it with the term: “strategic discourse”. The heavy
use of analogies and word exclusions are the driving factors. We asked if she
has been exposed to the same type of language, including any negativity towards
women, exchanged in the male dominated ECE field and her response was short and
sweet:
“It is the absence of
being included in the language not the negativity, and this has the same effect
as negativity.”
The next question, piggy backing on the above, was in
relation to the discourse used in the technical textbooks in the ECE field,
specifically the ECE220 (Analytical
Foundations of Electrical and Computer Engineering) textbook. All three of
us understand these books are heavily technical with little room for banter,
but Dr. Ozturk pointed out that even the subtle jokes and references related to
male centered activities such as drinking beer.
Dr. Ozturk actually had a stack of books in the corner of
her office, sent from numerous publishers to review / consider for courses at
NCSU. She said that one of the books had a quotation on every page, and the
only quotation by a female in the entire book was by an actress about
spaghetti! She mentioned she had sent this publisher a note with her opinion.
She also made the point that all of the books have been dedicated to their
wives but yet you never see a book written by a female dedicated to her
husband.
Dr. Ozturk’s husband is also a professor of Electrical
Engineering at North Carolina State University. We asked her if she noticed any
differences of how students treat her versus how students treat her husband.
She said that one small common detail she notices is that many students refer
to her as “Mrs” instead of “Dr.” She assumes the reason behind this is that her
students look at her as a motherly figure.
When asked about role models, Dr. Ozturk mentioned a high
school physics teacher she had while growing up in Turkey. She noted that this teacher was free spirited
and did not let small things in life get her down. The teacher drove a
Volkswagen Bug and enjoyed the simple things in life. Dr. Ozturk made the point
that women especially in Turkey fall into the gender stereotypes, as the
country is predominantly Muslim. Dr.
Ozturk’s story can be related back to Evelyn Fox Keller’s The Anomaly of a Woman in Physics, where Keller states:
“I was totally
dependent on my (male) teachers for affirmation – a dependency made treacherous
by chronic confusion of sexuality and intellect in relationships between male
teachers and female students”
From understanding this passage, it is extremely
inspirational in a career to have someone to look up to. Especially in a field
such as electrical engineering which is dominated by males. It makes us happy
to know that Dr. Ozturk was lucky enough to find an idol of the same gender,
and that she can provide the same for students at NCSU.
Overall, it was very inspirational talking to Dr. Ozturk
about her views and experiences in the field of women and science. In her career as an Associate Professor at
North Carolina State University, she strives to help people and make NC State a
better place. These small details that she mentioned were eye opening for us. After
being actively enrolled in the ECE department for four years now, we must say
that our awareness has increased at least ten fold in tandem with respect.
I find the disparity between proportions of females in ECE vs biomedical engineering to be quite intriguing. This goes to show that the content and difficulty of the coursework is not the predominant reason for less female involvement. I was relieved to see this conclusion, seeing as how an inferior intelligence argument is fuel to any patriarchal fire. The idea that biomedical engineers interface their products to people and this is the reasoning behind female involvement is fascinating. I am caused to wonder whether or not the desire of women to fulfill this caretaker roll is innate to our maternal instincts or, on the other hand, is societally constructed and an expected type of emotional response. Do women actually want to be biomedical engineers because it is easier to see the immediate impacts on a person-centered level? The desire for women, in general, to directly assist humanity is an interesting topic for a nature vs nurture argument.
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