Article | Open Access
| Ahead of Print | Last Modified: 24 July 2025
Views of Women Doctoral Students and Dropouts on Doctoral Education in Türkiye
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Abstract: Countries must adapt their higher education systems to address the demands of 21st‐century knowledge societies. Türkiye, a developing country (OECD, 2025), ranks 48th in the Human Development Index (UNDP, 2022). Despite improvements, gender inequality remains a significant issue in Türkiye, with women often dropping out of educational programs due to household and caregiving responsibilities (Conger & Long, 2010; Gür & Bozgöz, 2022; Quinn, 2013). This study explores the experiences and challenges of women in doctoral education, highlighting their roles as change agents in higher education. It presents the views of ten current women doctoral students and ten dropouts from various programs of public universities in Türkiye. The study’s qualitative research captures diverse perspectives by including voluntary participants who were single, married, or divorced; with or without children; and employed outside academia. Data collected from in‐depth semi‐structured interviews were thematically analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the participants’ experiences and perceptions. Two themes were identified through IPA: (a) challenges, which include the imposition of traditional roles, financial constraints, and unconstructive relationships with faculty members or advisors, and (b) the need for constructive relationships, defined by support from faculty, advisors, and peers. Suggestions for support mechanisms are also discussed.
Keywords: Diverse doctoral student agency; gender gap; higher education transformation; inclusive doctoral education
Published:
Ahead of Print
Issue:
Vol 14 (2026): Diversity and Change Agents in Higher Education (In Progress)
© Gülistan Gürsel-Bilgin, Havva Ayşe Caner, Mine Afacan Fındıklı, Fatma Nevra Seggie. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.