Exploring the Hidden Curriculum of Gender in Engineering Education: A Case of an Engineering Faculty in Turkey

This study explores the hidden curriculum of gender in engineering by focusing on an engineering faculty as an example in Turkey. Numerical existence of women engineers in Turkey, do not represent for qualitative information about gendered culture of this profession. Participants in this study, reported to face with gendered expectations, jokes, ignorance, and exclusion from social networks throughout university education. Mentioned conditions in engineering education are examined, where not only students but also faculty members learn to not notice the production and reproduction of gender differences in engineering education. The engineering faculty is thus perceived as an environment in which to learn how to become an engineer in the sense that the graduate will both fulfill the academic requirements and adopt the gendered social roles learned in engineering education. The findings of this research revealed that women experience several disadvantages because institutional structures value certain roles while individuals in engineering education learn to ignore the presence of such perceptions that tend to favor the dominant ideal types.