“It is necessary to go back to the beginning for the truth that lies beyond the pages.”
There is only one way to understand a story well. Must go to the beginning of everything. To those times when all existence began… Our ancestors began to draw the two concepts that lie in our society today, the birth of a great divide. Women and Men. They drew the woman first. Gentle, beautiful but strong as well as beautiful… Then they drew the man. Bigger, stronger… Thus, their fate was determined. While one would stay at home, the other would wander outside. While one would see the world, the other would always wait. Because it’s dangerous outside. Woman became the symbol of birth and fertility. Male became the symbol of destruction, hunt and war. That was the order.
But this fairy tale neither ends here nor is it just a fairy tale. This tale has survived in every page of history. As the pages progressed, a gap formed between the man and woman who instinctively shared everything in the first pages. The physically stronger man took the woman under his hegemony and began to make her suffer. He saw it as a problematic piece. Woman has become a symbol of man’s sin in this world. The order has almost turned women into a hell.
In “Kutadgu Bilig”, which was written by Yusuf Has Hacip in 1069 and is one of the first works of Islamic Turkish literature, it is seen that women are stuck between old Turkish traditions and the newly entered cultural environment and their place in social life cannot be determined exactly.
Paleolithic Age
Woman in human history; She is the first hunter, the first thinker, the first teacher, the first administrator. In matriarchal society, women were not only free, but held in high esteem. Here, woman was the equivalent of the concept of fertility. Abundance was extremely important for the continuation of the human lineage and for the success of the hunts.
Neolithic Age
Hunting, which is a source of livelihood, gradually gave way to agriculture and animal husbandry in this period. Thus, the nomadic society disappeared and the first villages were formed. The belief in the Mother Goddess has emerged in relation to reproduction and reproduction anxiety.
Chalcolithic Age
With the formation of village borders, the first wars of human history began. Wars were the beginning of many things. Transition to a manufacturing society. The slow disappearance of the matriarchal order and male power coming to the fore…
Towards the end of the first ages, an abyss is reached. An abyss that will get bigger and bigger.
Medieval
“And the blessing suddenly becomes a witch…”
According to the church, as holy as Mary was as the mother of Jesus, Eve, whose sin they still lived through, was such a horrible, disgusting being. Women were these disgusting creatures. They had to be kept under control. As if that wasn’t enough, according to the church, women’s genitalia were an incomplete version of men. They were a missing man, a servant of the devil.
17th century
“The witch thinks she’s found a way not to get burned.”
The woman, whose position in society was under the control of men, was a bargaining tool. It was just one of these exchanges in marriages arranged to increase the reputation of families. The woman is thrown into a corner, the men decide, once it was finalized, the rest didn’t matter.
The woman waiting in her corner is almost aware of what she will encounter in this new man, whom she does not know, in the new house she goes to. She knows her destiny, she is aware of the prison she will go to and “live” in, she has no power to change it…
Before the big business started by one of the witches, nothing so worthwhile had been written. Who was this witch? Of course, it’s none other than Giulia Tofana. Queen of poison. He built a great empire by launching Aqua Tofana (Tofana Juice), which he created by mixing arsenic, lead and beautiful horseradish. A few drops of this poison was enough to kill a man. Tofana was happy with the growth of her business – of course, women didn’t have the right to education back then, Tofana learned all she knew by spending time with alchemists and healers. It was an honor for her to find such a mixture without training and on time, while the women who were her clients thought that they had escaped the fate that had been given to them because they got rid of their husbands who looked after them as nothing more than a commodity. So everything was fine, it was a quiet, secret move, but it was the first time it was this big. Everything collapsed one day when one of her clients was caught by her husband. Although Tofana escaped for a long time, she was caught and executed with her daughter.
Looking at the story, this may seem like the right thing to do. But what Tofana did was more than that. It was to stand up to a rotten society…
The “witches” would realize that they must no longer be silent.
19th Century and the Age of Enlightenment
“Efforts to touch the outside world.”
Women showed their first resistance against being confined to their homes. Relatively respected women in the bourgeois class – these are only on paper, these women also do not have a say in the social order – have begun to reject the roles assigned to them. Apart from all this property status, women had various perceptions of beauty, varying from geography to geography. In Asia – especially the Chinese Empire – iron shoes were worn from an early age so that women’s feet would be small. In Europe they had to wear corsets, which was quite disturbing from the thin waist perception. It was almost as if their suffocating prison life was reflected in their clothes. There was this pressure even in the smallest part of their lives. So it was not surprising that women started such a resistance to want a “life” for themselves. These women organized various hall meetings under the name of “blue socks”. For the first time, the woman got rid of being the supporting character in the novels and got her own book. This point has been one of the most effective ways to announce the resistance to the people. (See: Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennet, Jo March, Anna Karenina and many more…)
Women would now fight to be in life. In this period, women fight for the sake of working, as seen in the characters of the novel. Due to the gender policy in education, the only skill that women knew could not go beyond housework. And that doesn’t seem to have much value in the “male” business world. This war is best described by Louisa May Alcott. In his novels, he shows women that they can start their own path of independence only by earning their own money.
20th Century Women’s Education, Gender and Conservatism
“Gender was not limited to a biological distinction, everything had a gender.”
In the 20th century, more professions were opened to women. The struggle for survival, which they started in the 19th century, had begun to bear fruit. The opening of these professions to them still did not kill the perception. Men entering the playground was condemned by the conservatives. But these condemnations did not stop the ongoing feminist movement. According to some, it was not possible to kill this created perception… According to some, there would always be such people in society. They understood that no matter what, they should not remain silent against this society.
21st Century
“There is everything
In nothing.”
No witch trials today.
Today, women can do anything.
Equal on both sides today.
Then today we are in a society where perceptions are dead.
No, today we are in a society of silence.
This century is the child of other centuries.
We built humans in endless centuries. We added endless judgments. Yes, the drawings at the beginning of the story are still there. We add on top of it… We add one somehow we cannot delete.
“They put a doll in the girl’s hand and a legos in the boy’s hand.”
The concept of men’s work is still not destroyed. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) comes from the beginning of the sector where this concept is affected. The century of equality still hasn’t beaten it. Unfortunately, this is a reality that started when we were still in primary school… On paper, women were included in education and the business world. Approaches that are not written on paper show the opposite. A boy and a girl sitting at that time are not equal. While the educational expectation progresses with an understanding that girls tend towards social sciences, it directs boys to STEM fields. “Men are better at The phrase is not foreign at all. The perception of the “male profession” from the past is in every field of STEM. Just as it is difficult to choose a profession from the STEM sector, trying to exist as a woman in STEM is another problem. The business world continues to be a male-dominated field. Looking at the companies working in this field at home and abroad, it is seen that the number of male employees is high. The answers received in the questions directed to the employers (mostly we come across computer and mathematics fields.) are similar. According to the answers, men are more successful and talented in this field. Answers embellished with more. Yes, there are many female STEM graduates, there are many male STEM graduates. So, how easy is it for women to enter the business world in this field, over the obstacles set by society?
We are surrounded by judgments that tell us what we can and cannot do.
Psychological Prejudices
“In fact, increasing the participation of women in these fields can be achieved primarily by breaking down the stereotypes that tell them what they can and cannot do at a young age. “
Realities that have been created for centuries are in our every action, every thought. In this respect, the article published in Science magazine in 2015 highlights an interesting point. Women are much less likely to prefer departments where they think they need to be gifted in order to be successful. These created “facts” lead them to believe that they are not innately gifted. They are shown a system in which innate talent is mandatory. For this reason, they work in fields such as education, archaeology, anthropology, sociology and psychology, which they think require less innate talent.specializing while the proportion of women is over 60%; Women’s participation in fields such as philosophy, mathematics, physics, computers, engineering and astronomy, which they consider to be innate talent, drops to 20 percent or less.
The research was conducted to include 1800 scientists and undergraduate students from 30 different disciplines. A professor of cognitive psychology at Princeton University, Dr. Sarah – Jane Leslie summarizes the research as follows: “Women are much less inclined to obtain a PhD in occupations that emphasize intelligence and genius. There are many reasons for this; But the most important of these is our social prejudices. Persistent cultural prejudices tend to associate men, not women, with pure intellectual genius. Women’s achievements are seen as hours spent buried in books; they are not seen as genius.”
So, are women really unsuccessful in these areas, as claimed?
No scientific research has been able to provide a logical reason for this claim. Despite this, the perceptions created have created an image that these areas are “men’s space” and everything is being done to ensure that this image is not destroyed. These patterns in us are so ordinary that they are so ordinary…” “Normal” seems to many of us. It’s as if the men are dealing with those complicated equations while the women are sitting at home wearing clothes.should have sewed like… That’s what gender is like.
“Behind the dusty pages, stolen pages of the fairy tale book…
Everybody knows Einstein. He is well known for that famous tongue-in-cheek photograph… Edison too. Tesla too. Faraday comes to mind. Schools tell about Watson and Crick’s achievements leading up to Nobel. Their inspiring stories are told and told. So is that all about it? Is the story that simple?
Famous Photo No:51 Owner:Rosalind Franklin
“Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Science for me is the explanation of life. The departure, the truth, the experience, the experiment… But you must define the belief, namely the life after death.” Rosalind Franklin
DNA is the key to life… In retrospect, our knowledge on this subject has increased and we continue to increase it. While gene maps are being produced now, the structure of DNA was not yet defined at that time. A woman in 1930s London would change that.
Of course labs and universities were full of men, women could only be there to clean the lab. But these were not an obstacle for Rosalind, who was burning with ambition and determination to explore. Rosalind was an unusual child in London at the time. Since she was always spending time with her brothers, she was interested in all kinds of games that men were interested in, and she loved competition more than anything. Rosalind went to St Paul’s Girls’ High School, one of the rare girls’ schools in England at the time, which gave chemistry and physics lessons, and stood out for her hard work and intelligence. “Rosalind is alarmingly intelligent. She spends all her time finding the right answers in her arithmetic operations.” says his aunt about Rosalind at that time. Thanks to his father’s relentless insistence, he was able to attend Newham College, Cambridge, in Chemistry. She received a medal of honor when he was still a sophomore. That alone was enough to apply for a job. After her college life, she would receive his doctorate from Cambridge University in the future for his work on coal chemistry. She started working as a research assistant at King’s College MRC Biophysics unit. She was later included in DNA studies here. Together with his student Raymond Gosling and colleague Maurice Wilkins, they showed that DNA has two forms. The discoveries included the first clues to the helical structure of DNA. Meanwhile, Rosalind kept taking pictures of the DNA. Her 1952 photograph would be the key to everything. Everything they found pointed to the double helix structure of DNA, but they didn’t have the data to prove it. Meanwhile, Crick and Watson were literally stuck in their own labs. They work without completing First, Rosalind publicized her views on the spiral structure.would explain. Howeverago before tooRosalind’in most important findings She made many contributions to the work that would be achieved by Francis and Watsons and later awarded the Nobel Prize.would be found. On January 30, 1953, Watson accompanied by Linus Pauling’s DNA structure sample containing false information.She came to see Rosalind.But instead of finding Rosalind , he found her collegue Wilkins. They couldn’t get along because of the heated arguments they had recently. Wilkins without permission He showed the “51st photograph”, one of the most important samples she had taken. So Watsons got more than they wanted. On February 28, 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson announced that they had discovered the secret of life. In April of the same year, he made public the double helix structure of DNA.they announced.In none of these statements They didn’t feel the need to mention her name. Societal rules that limited what he could do had come up against him in the harshest way.She left and started working with his own research team at Birkbeck College… She could unravel a new mystery. She could do it with the science he loved so much. She would. Maybe her passion is starting to kill her, biggest contradiction in her life. It was unfair. The X-Ray radiation she was exposed to for a long time in his studies dragged her to cancer. After the operations, the presence of two tumors was discovered and a diagnosis of ovarian cancer was made. take a break from work see from Neither his mother’s endless cries nor being away from work did her any good. She couldn’t work as much as before . She returned to the head of his team. In this process, they published 13 articles and their inventions continued to be published. The group was working on the polio virus this time. At the end of 1957 Rosalind’s When her pain became unbearable, she was taken to the Royal Marsden Hospital. In 1962, Crick and his colleagues won the Nobel Prize, which will not witness the endless debates about who owns the discovery of the helical structure of DNA, and perhaps will belong to her . Rosalind Elsie Franklin died on April 16, 1958, at the age of 38.
After that, discussions, speeches, and assumptions continued.
Because that’s how things work when reality is ignored.
From James Watson’s 1999 Harvard talk:
“I went to see Rosalind . I saw the X-ray photo and the spiral was visible there. Based on this, we obtained the molecular structure within a month. What could I do, Wilkins gave me that photoshouldn’t have shown.”
The World’s First Computer Programmer: Ada Lovelace
“I am never satisfied with understanding something; because no matter how well I understand, my understanding The many connections and relationships that come to my mind may be a very small part of everything I want to understand about how the subject in question was first thought of or arrived at…”
The field of technology is one of the fields where male dominance is seen the most. It is difficult to find female names in most of the firsts mentioned. When we flip through the dusty pages, there is an unheard of name that pops up. A name that started the age of technology.
Ada Lovelace, born Augusta Ada Byron on December 10, 1815, was a famous poet of the time, Lord George Gordon.She was the only legitimate child of lord Gordon. Lord Byron ve Anne İsabella Milbanke’s marriage was not happy. When Ada was only a month old, her mother left Lord Byron. When Lord Byron Ada was nine years old in Greece It is possible. Although it is thought that her father has no influence in Ada’s story, this is a wrong judgment. Her mother never wanted Ada to resemble her father. This cannot be called a simple request. This desire would be the basis of the education and strict discipline that Ada would receive in her childhood and youth. At the insistence of her mother, she received mathematics and science education from private teachers. In the circumstances of the period, this may seem interesting. These patterns did not fit Lady Byron, who studied literature, science, philosophy and especially mathematics, which was extra unusual for a woman at that time, in the 1800s; About Ada not to follow in her father’s footsteps was persistent. Instead of art and literature, Ada took courses in mathematics and science. She is educated in mathematics and science by William Frend, William King and Mary Somerville, who are famous researchers and scientists of the 19th century. One of her last teachers was Augustus De Morgan, a mathematician and logician.Ada, who designed a flying machine at the age of 13 and made all the momentary calculations, was admired by everyone with her mathematical ability at the age of 17. Even though her biggest passion throughout her life is science, she will be able to chat in any field.was in the hardware. From Faraday to his wide intellectual circle, Dickens made friends with many different names.
Ada met Charles Babbage at the age of 17, thanks to her mentor, Mary Somerville. Lovelace is known today as the mother of the computer.He was fascinated by his ideas. The Analytical Engine, generally regarded as the first computer, was designed and partially built by Charles Babbage in the 19th century. Lovelace had the chance to inspect the machine under construction.Babbage’ and He wanted a copy of the machine’s blueprints, he wanted to understand everything and study it. babbage“That sorcerer threw his magical amulet into the most abstract side of science and grasped it with a force few male intellectuals could apply.” defines it. In 1843 “If possible, forget this world, its troubles and many charlatans. Everything is short in this world except the sorceress of numbers.‘ he writes about Ada. The revolutionary feature of the Analytical Engine is to modify the instructions on punch cards to operate according to this knowledge.is able to change. Although the analytical engine was incomplete, it was the first machine to deserve the computer name.
In Turin, Babbage met with Italian engineer and future prime minister Luigi Menabrea. He convinced Menabrea to write a sketch of what the Analytical Engine could accomplish. In 1842, Menabrea published an article in French on the subject.of Menabrea article, Difference Of the engine provided a brief overview of how it works, followed by AnalyticsAn engine showed how it would be a far superior machine. The following year, Lovelace translated the article into English. She not only translated, but also added his own notes. This was exactly what would be his first step into programming. Because Lovelace added thousands of words from her own notes to the article. Lovelace describes the Analytical Engine as a comprehensive set of mathematical operations.can realize she noticed. She wrote an algorithm on how to calculate Bernoulli numbers. Among computer historians, this algorithm is considered the first computer program in history. She had even predicted that the Analytical Engine would perform operations on other things besides numbers. This is something that today’s computers do with ease. She published the article using the initials of the words “Augusta Ada Lovelace”, namely”A.A.L “. At a time when the publication of women’s scientific studies was a dream, it was not supposed to be obvious that she was a woman.
Some scholars argue that Ada’s contributions to computer science have been overstated. They say she may have written the algorithms with Babbage’s help. But in Babbage’s memoirs“I gave Ada some advice. To save time, I wrote down my comments on the calculation of Bernoulli numbers. But Ada showed me my fatal mistakes in the letter she wrote to me.”saying, emphasizing Ada’s superior talent.
There is Lovelace’in In his honor, one of the first programming languages was named Ada in order to keep his memory alive, and on the second Thursday of October, Ada Lovelace Day became a day where women’s achievements in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) were celebrated all over the world.
Computer Program named ADA (this name was chosen in honor of ADA)
She also suffers the same fate as Rosalind Franklin. She died of cancer at the age of 36. A strange twist of fate… Ada, who died at the same age as her father, is buried next to her father. Although there is nothing to prove behind it, it leaves a lot of controversy Ada…
