THE HISTORICAL TRANSFORMATION OF WOMEN'S ACCESS TO INFORMATION: FROM ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA TO THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22786319Keywords:
Ancient Mesopotamia, Women And Knowledge, Access To Information, Artificial Intelligence, GenderAbstract
Inequality in access to information is often considered a problem of the modern digital age; however, the roots of this issue extend back to the knowledge systems of ancient societies. In Ancient Mesopotamia, the production and access to knowledge were controlled by temple- and palace-centered institutional structures, while women’s participation in these systems was limited and selective. Women were able to take active roles in areas such as religious and medical knowledge; however, this production largely remained outside institutional knowledge structures and did not gain historical visibility. This study aims to analyze women’s access to information from Ancient Mesopotamia to the age of Artificial Intelligence by addressing the transformation between visibility and structural constraints. Today, access to information is being restructured through digital technologies and artificial intelligence systems; however, algorithmic biases, the digital divide, and data-driven inequalities show that the limitations on women’s access to information continue in different forms. The research is designed within a qualitative research approach and is based on a historical and comparative analysis method. Document analysis was used as the data collection method; cuneiform texts, mythological narratives, and historical sources related to Ancient Mesopotamia, along with contemporary academic studies, were analyzed. Within the scope of the literature review, databases such as ProQuest Central, Scopus, and Web of Science were utilized. The data were analyzed using the thematic analysis method, and they were evaluated under the themes of access to information, knowledge production, institutional control, visibility, and structural constraints. In addition, the study is not limited to a historical comparison but also reveals the position of women in contemporary scientific knowledge production through quantitative data. In this context, academic publications in Scopus and Web of Science were examined, and the proportion of female researchers in scientific production was analyzed. The findings show that although the tools of access to information have changed historically, the power relations determining this access have not changed; inequalities have not disappeared but have been reproduced in different forms and have maintained their structural continuity.
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