In Turkey this year, Parliament will mark March 8 with a special session focusing on women’s issues. Is the fact that gender equality will be discussed in the sacrosanct atmosphere of the National Assembly, where so few women have entered, a sign that closing the gap has become a mainstream political issue in this country? There have certainly been positive signs in recent months, but we will have to wait until party leaders unveil their electoral lists later this year to see if women will really get a chance to influence the political agenda.Overall, there is no doubt that progress has been achieved on many levels, in Turkey and around the world. The Scandinavian states have probably come closest to achieving gender equilibrium in their societies, but the fact remains that while women now have access to most professions and the highest levels of education, overall they still operate in a largely male world. The feminist movement has succeeded in opening doors but not in changing the global framework. We still see the world largely through male eyes and operate by men’s rules.
Take the media, for instance. Do you see many women on the evening news? The presenter may be a woman, but few of the topics covered relate to women or express a woman’s point of view. A year ago, an interesting survey analysed 86,000 news items published or broadcast around the world on a single day in 2005. It found that women were only 21 percent of the people featured in the news. Particularly striking was the fact that 83 percent of experts and 87 percent of spokespeople consulted by reporters were male. Men still have a quasi-monopoly on authoritative analysis. Women are more likely to appear in the media when they express popular opinion and of course, as celebrities: Britney Spears and Paris Hilton use up a significant share of women’s news coverage.
In developed countries, a majority of women now have jobs but fewer have proper careers. Too many women still take jobs for which they are overqualified because they offer a degree of flexibility not available in the higher echelons of corporate life. Rising through the ranks in any big company still requires the kind of 24-hour-a-day dedication that few women can, or are willing to, provide if they have children. If anything goes wrong in the carefully orchestrated life of a two-career family, the woman is still overwhelmingly expected to pick up the slack. When the school calls to say that little Hasan is ill and needs to be picked up, or the babysitter cancels at short notice, it is usually mum who will cancel that all-important meeting at work to step in. When the pressure gets too much and a parent needs to take time off or switch to part time work, the wage gap that remains at all levels will ensure that the loss of the mother’s salary will have less impact on the family’s finances. But when she tries to return to the job market, the “empty years” on the CV may count against her.
Perhaps it is time to seek more people and women-friendly alternatives to the rat race and the relentless drive for financial success. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the neo-liberal model of development is unsustainable in the long run and that male political brinksmanship is making our world more dangerous by the day. Women have an important role to play in creating a more balanced and human world, but they must be allowed to speak in their own voice.
