Women Engineers from ITU

In 1933, ITU was the first university to train female engineers in Türkiye. ITU still ensures the representation of women in STEM subjects. Scholarships, mentoring, awards, maternity and childcare policies are in place to support students and academicians.

Women Application Rates

A variety of student data, broken down by gender, is tracked and monitored by the university. Tracking women's acceptance rate helps the university to identify potential areas of growing imbalance and informs the institution's future practice and strategy directions to apply women's access schemes . Data on student enrollment in 2023 is displayed in the tables below.

Women Access: Enrolments and Completion by Gender

Although ITU offers mostly engineering programs where women are underrepresented almost 40% of enrolled and graduating students are female.

Enrolments and Completion by International Students

Around 5% of enrolling and graduating are made up bye international and refugee students.

Enrolments and Completion by Low Income Students

Policy Addressing Women's Applications

ITU is firmly dedicated to promoting gender equality and non-discrimination against women within the fields of science, engineering, and technology. As part of our commitment, we are in the process of establishing a Gender Equality Unit within the Women's Studies Center in Science, Engineering, and Technology (WSC in SET). This unit will serve as a vital mechanism for monitoring, evaluating, and benchmarking the objectives outlined in our Gender Equality Plan (GEP).

One of the primary focuses of our Gender Equality Plan is to ensure equal access to education/activities for all individuals, irrespective of their gender. Here you some parts from (GEP) showing our dedication:

“According to our constitution “Article 10 of the Turkish Constitution guarantees equality before the law: “Everyone is equal before the law without distinction as to language, race, color, sex, political opinion, philosophical belief, religion, and sect, or any such grounds.”

ITU pays attention to the dissemination of social justice and the importance of the principles of equality in all activities/ education programs organized by our university.”

Gender Equality Plan

Click to download pdf: Gender Equality Plan

Non-discrimination against women policy and policy that protects those reporting discrimination from educational or employment disadvantage

Please click here: ITU Directive on Preventing Sexual Harassment and Gender

EELISA people & institutions including ITU working to have all-inclusive and non-discriminatory environments

EELISA gathered a collection of case studies, with examples covering all the different dimensions of diversity object of the call: disability; ethnic/cultural/migration background; socio-economic background; sexual identity; education background; caring responsibilities; religious background/beliefs; and age.

The case studies collected covered also a wide range of purposes and target groups: some were initiatives put in place by students to help their peers; some other initiatives were implemented by academic staff to foster diversity and create more welcoming research environments among peers; by academic staff to help their peers deal with diversity in the classroom; by academic staff to create a culture of values and raise-awareness among their students; initiatives put in place by both academic staff and students to bring research and higher education closer to disadvantaged groups; or actions to help people with disabilities.

Women Mentoring

ITU organizes women's mentoring schemes, in which at least 10% of female students participate. These mentoring programmes are also archived on Youtube. Some of the published mentoring programmes in 2023 are as shown:

Women professors from ITU are offering mentoring programmes in EELISA Europen Universities. Examples of the case studies of mentoring ITU women professors in 2023 are shown here: Meet the EELISA Women who #MakeSafetySeen – INWED Campaign 2023

“As an Associate Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at ITU, specializing in water and air treatment technologies, I am truly inspired by the opportunity to contribute to the safety of society through my work. My passion lies in educating students about the critical importance of pollution control and treatment technologies. By instilling in them a deep understanding of the risks associated with pollution and the significance of implementing effective treatment measures, I empower the next generation of engineers to prioritize safety and environmental preservation in their future endeavors.” Dr. Nil Özbek, Associate Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at Istanbul Technical University

“As the vice director of ITU WSC-Women’s Studies Center and a faculty of the ITU School of Architecture, I resonate with the notion of safety by providing a holistic aspect in maintaining its tangible and intangible scopes in the fields I am teaching and working. From a more comprehensive manner, the notion of safety encompasses not only the safety of the built environment that we as architects and the architects of the future are responsible for by building durable structures that resist earthquake threats and many other natural hazards by providing a shelter but also maintaining the wellbeing of the users via providing the ultimate comfort physically and psychologically with the pleasing environments and atmospheres. Besides, the safety in engineering the built environment moves beyond the physical infrastructure quality to the intangible social infrastructure quality, where architects, engineers, urban planners, landscape architects, and interior architects all collaborate to construct better living environments where societal needs are fulfilled, fragile groups like women, children, refugees, natural-hazard survivors are protected, and the wellbeing of the community is maintained. Thus, I teach my students the notion of safety from every aspect and enable them to explore and internalize the wisdom of being caregivers and designers of the safer societies of the future.” Assoc. Prof. Emine Görgül, School of Architecture, Vice-Director of WSC-Women’s Studies Center at Istanbul Technical University

Supporting Women and Women Access Measures/Schemes

In 2023 ITU has offered several scholarships for women students who are applying to STEM subjects where they are underrepresented.

Global engineer girls Scholarship

Alarko Scholarship

Türkiye's First Women Engineers

Women have been underrepresented over centuries. ITU, a pioneer in many fields, was also the first institution to train women engineers. Sabiha Rıfat, Melek Erbul, Nezihe Önyay and Altan Edilge were among these names. In 1927 Sabiha Rıfat, together with Melek Ertuğ, is one of the two female students among 350 male students. She is the only woman who enters this 6-year school as a secondary school graduate. Her friend Melek is a high school graduate. Sabiha Rıfat (Gürayman), the first Turkish woman engineer of the Republican era, entered the School of Engineering, the ancestor of ITU, in 1927 and graduated in 1933, and started her life as a civil engineer together with her classmate Melek Erbul. Cahide Ardop, who earned a PhD in mechanical engineering at ITU in 1949 and was the first woman engineer to do so, was among the pioneering women. Altan Edige is the first female engineer in Turkey to receive the title of 'Higher Mechanical Engineer'.

Istanbul Technical University is one of the 7 universities from 6 countries (Hungary, Austria, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Turkey) that participated in the UNICAFE ((Survey of the University Career of Female Scientists at Life Sciences versus Technical Universities) project, which was carried out between 2006 and 2008 to determine the situation of women academics in the fields of engineering and medicine. The ITU group hosted the UNICAFE final meeting on November 12-13, 2008 and organized a meeting of European women rectors before the conference. These activities led to the idea of establishing a center within ITU in order to make the best use of the potential in the field of gender. The establishment of our I.T.U. Women Studies Center in Science Engineering and Technology was realized with the decision of the Executive Board of Higher Education dated 04.11.2009. The center still works on schemes to encourage applications by women. Women application, acceptance and entry rates as well as women's likelihood of graduating compared to men's have been tracked since the opening of the center. Schemes are put into place to close the gap in STEM subjects where women are underrepresented.

Studies On Diversity, Gender Equality And Underrepresented Groups

The Sustainability Office coordinator as the EELISA representative for the related sub-group participated in work on diversity, gender equality and underrepresented groups within the scope of FORE U2 by EELISA.