Changıng Gender Ratios In The Relations Between Higher Religious Education and Employment

Religious education carries out many different functions such as promoting social change and continuity as well as providing necessary means for the individual to understand one s inner and outer world. During the twentieth century, the growing cross-cutting relation between education and economy started to have its steady impact on the religious education through the training of the labour force into the mentioned functions. It has also become one of the main functions of the higher religious education in Turkey. Nevertheless, the increasing numbers of female students in the faculties of theology might affect the existing employment fields or open new ones for the graduates in the long-term. Thus, the primary purpose of this paper is to explore these relations in light of the observed changing gender ratios in the faculties of theology. It is comprised of four chapters - the first one elaborates on the relation between higher religious education and employment whereas the second touches upon the increase of women employment and its relation with education. Then, the paper offers an analysis of the numbers of female students and female graduates. Finally, the employment alternatives for female graduates from faculties of theology are discussed.