Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University (KMU) Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Gavgalı was asked about the appointment of a female vice rector at the press conference held in Karaman on November 6.
A journalist stated that the appointment of a woman as vice rector was on the agenda and it was claimed that Gavgalı's wife opposed it. Gavgalı rejected the claim that his wife had a role in the university administration.
"They want our vice-rector to be a woman," said Gavgalı, adding, "We do indeed have working friends, but we usually hold our meetings after five." Gavgalı said that the meetings could last until eight in the evening and stated that sometimes people could not attend the meeting.
İYİ Party Deputy Chairman Prof. Gavgalı's answer to the question of the female vice rector by citing the evening meetings. Dr. İpek Özkal Sayan reacted. Stating that female academics already exceed their working hours with lectures, juries, articles and project work, Sayan emphasized that the suitability of the managerial candidate should be evaluated based on their academic knowledge and management experience.
Sayan said, "The words 'Female vice rector cannot attend the evening meeting' are actually the product of a mentality that summarizes the view on women's labor both in the academy and in working life. This view is a provision that both determines the place of women and devalues women's labor in the academy. A female academician gives lectures in the morning, serves as a jury member in the afternoon, writes articles and prepares project reports in the evening and at the weekend. She already exceeds the working hours limit every day and is subject to the same conditions as male academicians here. Without a competency evaluation, the woman's life is calculated and evaluated on her behalf." "Someone else decides on his behalf how he will spend his evening, what responsibility he can take on, what task he will want or not, and there is never a competency evaluation here," he said.
"The most problematic element in the relevant administrator's statement is that the female administrator's participation is presented as a problem in advance," said Sayan, adding, "Someone else has decided at what hours a female academician, who has not yet been appointed or even named, can come to the meeting, and this decision is not based on any information about that person's life, family, preferences and capacity."
Sayan said, "According to the data of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), there are a total of 204 universities in Turkey, 129 of which are state and 75 foundation universities. According to the academic research published in 2025 on the representation of women in university administration, 85 of the 469 vice rectors examined are women and 384 are men. In other words, only one in every five vice rectors in our universities is a woman. This table shows that female academics are involved in decision-making and decision-making in higher education." "It shows that its representation in management mechanisms remains limited," he said.
Stating that the closure of management positions to women cannot be explained by the lack of female academics, Sayan said, "Approximately half of the faculty members in Turkey are women. The decrease in the number of women in top management positions while the base of the pyramid expands is commonly known as the 'glass ceiling' effect. The glass ceiling is an invisible set of obstacles standing in front of women. Evening meetings, informal men's networks, 'our team' culture and 'unsuitable' candidacies are parts of this whole. 'Cannot come in the evening', 'cannot be flexible', "When judgments such as 'she has a family' are collected, a ceiling is created. Even women in management positions are constantly tested with these assumptions; even a woman's personal failure is considered a 'genus' failure."
Sayan said, "The management of an institution established with public resources and providing education on behalf of the public must consider gender equality within itself. This is not a goodwill expectation, but a legal responsibility. Moreover, universities are institutions that are expected to set an example for the rest of society. When a university administration excludes a female academician by saying 'she cannot come to the evening meeting', it weakens the message given to the students by the professors who talk about social equality in their classes."
The competence of a vice rector; Stating that it will be measured by its academic knowledge, management experience, corporate vision and ethical stance, Sayan said, "An administration that keeps the knowledge and experience of half of the population off the table effectively reduces its own wisdom by half. These assumptions disguised as 'compassion', which exclude women from decision-making processes, belittle both the professional and care work of women. This is proof that women's labor is left socially neglected." ANKARA
