In countries where women have not worked outside the home and earned money, the economy of the country has suffered. According to Isobel Coleman's research, getting women into the workforce improves the economic development of poorer countries far beyond what appears on the surface. Did you know that when women are given opportunities to work outside the home they become empowered and their role changes in a variety of ways? How is this? They have increased stature at home and in the community.
Did you know that women spend their earned income very differently than men? The majority of married women focus on three key areas: education, health and nutrition for their families. What is the result? When women are able to earn money, educational opportunities for the children and overall health and nutrition improve dramatically.
Coleman, an expert on the role of women in the Middle East and southwest Asia, believes that just as tradition has been an obstacle for women around the world, it is a particularly big obstacle for women in the Middle East.
Turkey has a much better scorecard than most of her neighbors -- thanks to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's education and literacy reforms. Here are a couple of interesting points I found:
-- The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reports that the adult literacy rate worldwide from 2000 to 2005 was 87 percent.
-- Primary school net enrollment/attendance between 2000 and 2006 was 89 percent.
Still, there are fewer women in the workforce and the figures for literacy and primary school enrollment are lower. Sometimes you may meet some women in poorer areas or in domestic work who cannot read or write. They have memorized numbers so they can use the bus and dial a phone number. Once my cleaning lady broke something and left me a note to tell me. It was then that I realized that she could hardly write. I asked her about her note and learned she has memorized certain sentences and numbers to read and write. It is often the case that in villages, older women and some younger girls in large families are illiterate. In villages near the border with Syria and Iraq, older women may not even speak Turkish! They speak Arabic or Kurdish.
It is not uncommon for foreign visitors who have been exposed to the underprivileged to ask me what is being done in Turkey to increase literacy and primary school attendance among the female population. Here's what I've learned:
There are hundreds of women's groups throughout the country that are just this. Most of them are volunteer organizations and have low budgets, often financed by active middle-class women in the capital city of the province. The government is definitely not against this sort of work. They have serious targets to improve literacy and these courses are often run from local government social centers. The national project is called "Ulusal Eğitime Destek Kampanyası." If you want to help, your best way to start is not via the village headmen, but via these existing women's networks that already have active programs. Here are a few Web sites to give you a flavor of the wonderful work being done by the women of Turkey:
Şemdinli Kadın Evi. This article talks about a course in January 2007 that had 170 women attending: www.kadinyasamevi.com/news_detail.php?id=8
Kazete, a newspaper run by women for women. This article talks about courses run by women: www.kazete.com.tr/?bolum=haberler&sayfa=yerelyonetim04
A society of teachers who volunteer in their spare time to help improve literacy. This article is about a course in Diyarbakır: www.ogretmenlersitesi.com/haberoku.asp?Kod=8108. A course in Adana: www.kenthaber.com/Arsiv/Haberler/2007/Aralik/04/Haber_299265.aspx
Uçan Süpürge, a women's organization with a Web site in English. An article in Turkish from last month about a course in Amasya:
www.ucansupurge.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2879&Itemid=75
How encouraging it is to see that there are many, many activities that come up in a Google search!
By the way, I read something recently about an elderly African-American man who was a slave and is illiterate. His dream? To learn to read and write. He is in his 70s now and is attending a preschool and learning with the kids.
It's not just women around the world who have suffered from tradition. Coleman says, "Tradition is very powerful and not all bad but when it really constrains what women can do and hurts the fabric of a country, then it becomes an important issue."
