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Female labor force participation still weighty problem for Turkey
According to a research note from the Bahçeşehir University Center for Economic and Social Research (BETAM), female labor force participation in Turkey is a dismally low 26.9 percent, much lower than comparable economies in Latin America, the Middle East and current European Union members. While the male labor force participation rate was a healthy 74.6 percent in 2008, comparable to the group of countries in BETAM’s note, Morocco was the closest to Turkey with a 29 percent female labor force participation rate.
EU member Portugal led the pack, with 69 percent of its women in the workforce. The Latin American countries in the group -- Brazil, Argentina and Chile -- were all leagues ahead of Turkey.
The note stated that from 1989 onward, the labor force participation rate of women in Turkey has been steadily dropping as industrialization meant a decreasing population dependent on agriculture for their income. Using data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), the note showed that the participation rate fell from 36 percent in 1989 to 26.9 percent in 2008, though the rate improved slowly in the high-growth years starting in 2003. The decrease stems from the industrialization of Turkey and the fact that women who had worked on farms lacked the skills needed in an urban economy -- especially poignant given the country’s rapid urbanization in the 1990s.
Education, according to the note, did not do much to address this problem. BETAM highlighted that serious problems are faced by middle and high school graduates, who face a whopping 21.1 percent unemployment rate, the highest out of the group BETAM analyzed.
“In general, the fact that a high school education does not equip women with skills for the labor market coupled with the reality that childrearing and gender roles increase the opportunity costs of working lead to a dismal labor market situation for women,” the note stated. University education also did not help Turkey’s situation, as university educated women face a 13.8 percent unemployment rate -- the highest out of all the countries studied.
Regarding whether Turkey could reach its goal of having a female labor force participation rate of 40 percent by 2023, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the republic, BETAM stated that Turkey would need to have an annual growth in the rate by a little over 1 percentage point on an annual basis.
A similar report by the İstanbul Chamber of Public Accountants and Financial Advisors (İSMMMO) stated that the crisis year of 2009 was especially difficult for women, who saw their incomes evaporate, with 18.4 percent of women facing decreased incomes and 25.4 percent dipping into their savings.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Saniye Dedeoğlu, an assistant professor in the department of labor economics and industrial relations at the University of Muğla, stated that women are overburdened in Turkey with household responsibilities and childrearing. She stated that according to a survey by TurkStat in 2006, women spend on average five hours and 17 minutes per day on household chores and looking after children, whereas this figure was only 51 minutes per day for men. Moreover, men spend on average six hours and eight minutes per day on economic activities whereas this number is a lower four hours and 19 minutes for women.
“The childcare services provided by the government are not enough,” stated Dedeoğlu, adding that this meant that much of the childrearing activities weighed upon women. She noted that a similar situation also existed with the elderly, whose care was socially assigned to females in the household.
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