Sexism and Proffessional Performance of Female Instructors

Abstract

Professional performance of teachers and academicians is easily affected by a variety factors including social, cultural and methodological variables. Methodological issues are given priority by researchers with negligence on social and cultural issues. This study aims to find out whether female instructors' teaching and working performance are affected on the grounds of sexism at the School of Foreign Languages in Anadolu University, Turkey. To this end, a questionnaire consisting of 20 questions inquiring whether their working performance is affected or not was given to 30 female instructors. The questionnaire mainly includes items based on theories of Marxist feminism. Findings suggest female instructors face many problems and their working performance is affected negatively. These findings can be categorized under three different themes which are perceptions of female academicians concerning household chores and their professional life, the society's perceptions concerning female academicians, and female academician's ideas about their own household and professional practices