Investigation of the career process of women engineers within the context of Habitus and Nine Types Temperament Model

The exponential growth of scientific knowledge and continuing developments in advanced technology are transforming society. In many meta-policy documents, it was emphasized that to become a world scale productive country with competitive advanced technology, Turkey needs qualified human resources in these areas. Moreover, contribute to sustainable development, quality education and gender equality in education, which are two of the sustainable development goals, are especially important for capacity building in advanced technology. Defense and aerospace technology are considered the most advanced technology for today. Although it constitutes almost half of the population, the proportion of women in advanced technology is limited to about 1%. The proportion of female students who have chosen STEM field and completing their studies in this field is very low compared to male students who have a career in aerospace and defense technologies. The aim of this study is to evaluate the career process of women engineers in aerospace and defense technologies. The case study is carried out from qualitative research patterns. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews. All the findings derived from this study implied Habitus and personal traits are noteworthy factors that shaped the career choice of women engineers in defense and aerospace technologies. The findings suggest that diversity in STEM education will increase the proportion of human resources in advanced technology and at this point, Nine Types of Temperaments Model will help both teachers/parents to help students and student themselves to decide career paths according to their temperament.