Prof.Dr. Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN1,2
Department of Pharmacognosy
Faculty of Pharmacy
Gazi University
Ankara
TURKEY
DEAN
Faculty of Pharmacy
Eastern Mediterranean University
Gazimagosa
NORTH CYPRUS
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Women in Turkish history
Woman academicians in Turkey
Female university students in Turkey
Some examples of non-Muslim woman scientists
Problems faced by woman scientists
My academic carrier
My suggestions
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Women have been always important in the history of Turkey
In the 15 past states founded by Turks in the history, women
were equal to men and the these states were ruled equally by
the king (hakan) and queen (hatun)
Met Islam in the 10th century, invaded Anatolia in 1071 and
established a Muslim state “The Great Selcuklu Empire”
The 16th state – Ottoman Empire (1299) extended borders of
Islam from Arabian Peninsula, North Africa to the Eastern
Europe (Vienna) at 16th century
The first high schools for girls;
Russia
1872
France
1880
Ottomans 1880
The first female students;
University of Vienna
Sorbonne University
German Universities
Ottoman University (Darulfünun)
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
The compulsory education for girls
The first woman politician
The first female government officer
The first female student in law school
The first 7 female students in medical school
The first female dentist
The first female judge
1897
1899
1895-1905
1914-1921
1869
1909
1913
1920
1922
1920
1930
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17th State – Republic of Turkey (1923)
Equal right to women to vote and nomination for elections (1930)
Total number of
the universities in
Turkey
139
State universities
universities
94
Total number of academicians
Female academicians
27% Professor
33%
Assoc./Assist.
Prof.
45% Research
assistan
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
Private/Foundation
45
82.000
40 %
Sabiha Gökçen;
the first woman warplane pilot in the world
- 1936
in 2006;
Women in science
Women in geological sciences
Women in engineering sciences
Woman engineers (in 2000);
England
1.5%
Germany
4%
USA
6%
Turkey
12%
36%
25%
29%
(11% in USA)
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Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Number of female students at universities 45%
Expected to be equal in 2016
Annual average increase 0.44%
The highest increase in female student
number is in geology and geophysics;
1960
1%
1970
1%
1980
20%
1992
30%
2010
40%
Annual average increase 1.42%
The female student-rich programs
in Turkey;
-Literature
-Dentistry
-Pharmacy
Woman presidents in universities
Turkey 9.8%
EU
10-15%
Woman professors in universities
Turkey 25%
EU
15%
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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19 Pharmacy faculties in Turkey & North Cyprus
11 woman deans
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Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
The Eastern Mediterranean University (North Cyprus)
9 Faculties (4 woman deans – Law, pharmacy, architecture,
health sciences)
1 woman vice rector out of 5
Woman director of the Institute of Higher Education
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Programs
Female student no.
Male student no.
Medical School
14.756
20.113
Faculty of Dentistry
3335
2.967
Faculty of Pharmacy
2.534
2.362
Faculty of Literature
11.233
6.144
Faculty of Art & Science
90.217
76.738
Faculty of Education
94.480
69.732
Faculty of Technical Education
3.593
24.818
Faculty of Veterinary
1.410
6.700
Faculty of Religion Studies
3.816
2.175
Faculty of Law
11.631
11.815
Faculty of Architecture
5.148
3.780
Faculty of Communication
9.193
11.599
Faculty of Fine Arts
9.596
8.474
Faculty of Electric-Electronics
653
4.551
Faculty of Engineering
25.356
79.734
University of Remote-Learning
180.366
143.379
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Women have been always involved in every discipline of science
Many iconic women scientists
Polish-French, born in 1867 in Poland, poor childhood
and teenager periods, mother & wife, widow, the first
woman professor at Sorbonne University
She shared her Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) with her
husband Pierre Curie and with Henri Becquerel and
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911)
She named the first chemical element that she
discovered "polonium" (1898) for her native country
In 1932, she founded a Radium Institute (now the
Maria Skłodowska–Curie Institute of Oncology) in her
home town, Warsaw
Marie Curie-Chemist
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
“A woman died for science” – leukemia due to radioactivity
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American, born in Scotland in 1857
A housekeeper to Professor Edward Charles
Pickering
A job examining photographic plates
Her role as his assistant was formalised in
1881, and she set about classifying stars
according to their spectra
The new classification system eventually
became known as the Pickering-Fleming
System
Williamina FlemingAstronomer
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
Williamina Fleming and 'Pickering's harem' as
the scientific community dubbed them,
catalogued over 200,000 stars, the data being
eventually published in the 1890 multi-volume
Draper Catalogue of Stellar Spectra
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British, born in Italy in 1820
At the age of 25 told her parents she wanted to
become a nurse
Her parents were totally opposed to the idea as
nursing was associated with working class women
She went to Kaiserwerth, Germany where she
studied to become a nurse at the age of 31
Florence NightingaleNurse & Statistician
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
In 1853, when Russia invaded Turkey; Britain and
France soldiers came to help and during that time,
she volunteered her services and was eventually
given permission to take a group of 38 nurses to
Turkey
To spread her opinions on reform, Nightingale
published two books, Notes on Hospital (1859) and
Notes on Nursing (1859).
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Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Tansu Çiller – Prime minister
(Turkey)
Megawati Sukarnoputri
– President (Indonesia)
Benazir Butto – Prime minister
(Pakistan)
Atifete JahjagaPresident of
Kosova
Khaleda Zia & Sheikh Hasina –
Prime ministers (Bangladesh)
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
Mame Madior Boye –
Prime minister (Senegal)
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The western media reflects an image that;
Poor education and the type of
religion practiced are directly
correlated
Gender inequity is specific only
to Muslim countries
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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The fact is that the United States falls
behind six Muslim countries in the
percentage of women graduating in
science to the total science graduate
population
The countries whose ratio of women science
graduates exceeds that of the United States are
Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon,
Qatar and Turkey
Morocco and Turkey exceeds the United States in
the ratio of women engineering graduates as a
percentage of the science graduate population
Source: http://www.missionislam.com/science/mwscience.htm
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Our existence in working world is pressurized by
various factors; (1)
Traditions and culture
Economic independence
Male domination
Parents suppression and community pressure
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Our existence in working world is pressurized by
various factors; (2)
Being a wife and mother
Housekeeping
Responsibility of children
Responsibility of parents/parents-in-law
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Pharmacist, born in 1972 (Ankara, Turkey)
 Wife and mother of 10-year old daughter
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B. Sc. (Pharmacy): Gazi University, Turkey (1989-1993)
M.Sc. (Pharmacognosy): Gazi University, Turkey (1993-1996)
M.Sc. (Marine Natural Product Chemistry): University of the Ryukyus, Japan (1996-1998)
Ph. D. (Pharmacognosy): Gazi University, Turkey (1999-2002)
Postdoctoral Research: University of Winnipeg, Canada (2003)
Assoc. Prof. : Faculty of Pharmacy, Gazi University, Turkey (2004-2009)
Prof. Dr.: Gazi University, Turkey (October 2009- to date) (Permanent position)
Dean: Faculty of Pharmacy, Eastern Mediterranean University, Gazimagosa, North Cyprus (May 2011- 2014)
(present address)
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Mainly on neuroprotective activity by in vitro and in vivo
methods
Enzyme inhibitory activities of medicinal plants related to
Alzheimer’s disease and some other neurological diseases
Up-to-date; I have worked on over 300 plant species
yielding approximately 500 plant extracts
About 90 pure compounds from plants
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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2006- “Scientific Encouragement Award” given by Academy of Pharmacy-Association of Turkish Pharmacists
2010- “TWOWS (OWSDW)/Elsevier Award in Chemistry for Young Woman Scientist for Asia-Pacific Region”
given by Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSDW-formerly TWOWS-Italy)
2010- “COMSTECH (Organization of Islamic Countries - Standing Committee on Science and Technological
Cooperation) Science Award in Biology”
2011- L’Oreal & Turkish Academy of Sciences - Young Woman Scientist Award (in Life Sciences)
2011- 2016 Represantitive for Central and South Asia region in the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
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Editor-in-Chief:
Journal of Natural Pharmaceuticals –
Editor-in-Chief (2009- )
Biotechnological production of plant
secondary metabolites – E-BookBentham Publishers (2011)
Lead Guest Editor for the special issue in
the journal of “Evidence-Based
Complementary and Alternative
Medicine” (2011)
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Publication information:
121 articles in international (SCI) journals
35 articles in national (peer-reviewed) journals
9 book chapters (7 international)
15 invited lectures
31 oral presentations (International and national)
101 poster presentations (International and
national)
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Beijing - China
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Beijing - China
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Islamabad - Pakistan
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Istanbul - Turkey
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Work harder and harder
Never leave your experiment/task to the next day
Try to be a good wife and excellent mother (Because family is over everything)
Try to be a good housekeeper (Because when you step in your home, you are not a professor anymore!!!)
Make a good balance between your daily house life and scientific life
Try to force your conditions
Do not be afraid of competing with your male colleagues
Be optimistic
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
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Science and technology is the only way in our
world to reach at the top
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Governments of the Muslim countries must support their woman citizens,
particularly,
-to create new success stories and use woman intelligence for the
benefit of their communities
-give more chance
-apply positive discrimination to women
We are human before being a
woman or man
Science for everybody!!!
Ilkay ERDOGAN ORHAN
"Iqra!" (read) was the first
command from God to
prophet Mohammad
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ANITKABİR (Ankara - TURKEY)
The monument of Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK,
The founder of Republic of Turkey in 1923
“It should be believed that everything that we see on
Earth is the performance of women”
Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK
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