Women in Computer Programming Occupations in Turkey: Reconciling Work and Family Obligations

Abstract

In the literature on 'professional women, the issue of how women in computer programming occupations in Turkey reconcile their work with their marital status and family responsibilities has not been studied yet. The aim of this study is to compare the women working in low-status, dead-end computer jobs, such as data entry, with the women working in high-status and highly rewarding jobs, such as system analysis or computer programming. In this context, we looked at the similarities and differences between these two groups of women, focusing on the question of whether women working in highly demanding and challenging jobs have continued to play the traditional wife-mother role without considerable change. One of our important findings is that the majority of the women in this sector were born and grew up in the most developed Western regions of Turkey, where their chances of higher education were high. Another finding is that women working in low-status computer programming jobs still continue to combine work and family responsibilities by retaining almost sole responsibility for domestic tasks, and thus define themselves primarily as mothers and homeworkers. In comparison, women working in high-status occupations do not exactly fit into the traditional family patterns in terms of their marital status and roles at home. Many women in this group opt to remain single. Those who are married employ various strategies to overcome the role conflict they experience. Hiring paid help is the common strategy. Our findings indicate the emergence of a "new" image of women working in high-status computer occupations which can be regarded as a challenge to the deep-rooted, traditional gender roles in Turkey.