Abstract:

Despite increasing opportunities for women in the labour force in recent years there have been significant differences in the career processes that men and women pursue in their lives. Determining the feminine and masculine profession perceptions of university students at the most critical stage of the vocational process and detailed examination of their experiences in this field will contribute to the planning of practical recommendations and interventions. The first objective of this explanatory mixed method study was to identify the departments that university students perceive as masculine and feminine, and to discover what students who are gender-minority in these departments experience. As a result of the first stage of the study that was conducted with 959 students, the most masculine professions were found to be civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical and electronics engineering departments. The most feminine professions were midwifery, child development, preschool teaching, and nursing departments. In the second stage of the study, qualitative interviews were conducted with 6 female students from the most masculine departments, and with 7 male students from the most feminine departments. At the end of these interviews, the experiences of the students were combined under two main themes: “To be a female student in departments perceived to be masculine”, and “To be a male student in departments perceived feminine”. 

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