The loss of Nermin Abadan on December 11, 2025, one of the last representatives of the founding generation in the field of social sciences, compelled me to rethink the importance of other women academics who were her contemporaries.I penned this article to write about the influence of Abadan and other women academics during the founding period of the Turkish Republic on subsequent generations, taking into account the "spirit of the times."What I will convey here will be based on my observations and readings regarding three women social scientists whom I had the opportunity to meet in the Ankara of the 1960s and who influenced me and the young women of my generation.Remembering and reminding others of Behice Boran, Mbeccel Kray, and Nermin Abadan, who all influenced me and other women in choosing social sciences as a profession, is important for us to understand what an arduous endeavor the production of science is. 2 While writing this article, I also realized how few women academics or thinkers who could influence other women are in the new conservative environment in which we live today.I wonder, are there no longer pioneer women, or have the areas from which women draw inspiration changed in this new order, or do women no longer need pioneer women?I would first like to explain what I mean by the "spirit of the times."For quite some time, I have been trying to emphasize that when using concepts accepted in the academic world, we, as social scientists in a country like Turkey where the production of original knowledge is rare, need to know in which place and time, and in which context they were produced.I believe this is even more important because we often try to transfer knowledge based on different approaches and schools or engage in "translated science," as I put it, rather than produce original knowledge.For this I extend my sincere thanks to my colleagues Nihal nciolu, Selmin Kaka, and Aye H.
Sema Erder (Tue,) studied this question.