Statistical Analysis and Evaluation of Changing Trend of Woman Employment in Turkey in Globalization Conditions

1-Introduction

Active involvement of women comprising almost half of the population of the country into working life is of great importance in the development of a country and in the struggle with poverty. However, despite all efforts, the rate of the women involvement in the workforce in Turkey as a developing country is around 34%. According to latest 2017 OECD report, women in Turkey take its place much below the average of OECD countries in terms of the level at the rates of both workforce and involvement in employment (OECD.Employment-Outlook-Turkey-2017.pdf). In this sense, depending on such international foundation reports as OECD and ILO, the status of the women employment in Turkey shows that it is at the low levels in terms of such qualitative tasks as being able to get equal job and carried in the parliament and public service, being an employer, secured job, gender equality, having the right of being a member of a union, job befitting to a socially secured person as the universal criteria having a significance for the equal presentation they have and working rights in the country. As shown in Table 1, even though there is a partly improvement in the involvement of women in employment quantitatively according to similar criteria because of increasing incentives and social policies in Turkey in recent years, the same improvement cannot be observed in quality. Unfortunately, there are some lacking quality such as gender discrimination, wage level, proper job, obtaining qualitative working conditions in the sense of job and home balance. Information about 2017 OECD-Outlook Report showing the quality level of Turkey in women employment is given in Table 1.

Table 1. Performance Level of Employment in Turkey

Women in Turkey are mostly intensified in atypical working fields with low wage, flexible, with no insurance and long and strong working conditions developing as a result of neoliberal policies caused by globalization (Karadeniz-2011). As seen in the table below, agriculture sector as a working field, small businesses, textile sector and basic work needing no qualification and health, elderly and childcare services which cannot be easily recorded could be given as examples. The sectors with rare women workforce could be given as high level management, public service, jurisdiction, industrial affairs and business and trade affairs.

Table 2. Common Women Occupations in Turkey (2012, Thousand person, 15+ age)

Because of the reasons mentioned, the country with highest score according to the 2016 Global Gender Gap of World Economic Forum is Island while Turkey had its place at 130^th rank among 144 countries (http://www.dw.com/tr/türkiyenin-cinsiyet--karnesi/). The most important indicator of women employment quality is the rank of gender discrimination. As given Table 3 which was arranged according to the geographical features of countries in this issue, Southern Asian countries where Turkey is included are not in a good position in Gender Discrimination in terms of Workforce Involvement and it shows that Turkey has a performance close to Western African and Middle East countries (ILO,2017).

Table 3. Labour force participation rate by sex (per cent) and gender gap (percentage points), 1997-2021

Even though women employment has partly improved quantitatively, necessary improvement has not been obtained qualitatively. In order to increase women employment in Turkey to the desired level, a great many incentives have been given recently, particularly socio-economic ones. As a result of the studies mentioned, an improvement has been obtained in the economy but there hasn’t been a decrease in unemployment at the desired level. However, a partly increase has been obtained in women employment, nevertheless, similar improvement has not been obtained in getting a qualitative occupation (Source: TÜRKONFED 1. Faz Rapor-2017, Yıldız-2013). According to TSI (Turkish Statistics Institution) July-2017 data, non-agriculture men unemployment in Turkey was 12.4% while non-agriculture women unemployment was around 17.7%. In this sense, the primary problem of Turkey, as the outcomes of questionnaires reveal, seems to be unemployment and woman poverty after terror problem. For that reason, the state was regarded as responsible for guaranteeing the right to work as a social state principle, which is one of the basic principles of the constitution (1982, Const., Art. No 10, 50) (Ülger, 2017:24). As a matter of fact, this issue was mentioned in such international texts as Human Rights Declaration, CEDAW, European Social Charter, and ILO and the state was regarded as responsible primarily for the solution of the problem (http://www.tbmm.gov.tr). However, in the current issue, despite the efforts made, the problem of women unemployment is still rising in Turkey keeping its importance (Table ILO -2017).

In order to fight against woman problem actively in the current process, it is necessary to deal with such problems as education, woman and man discrimination, job and family life balance and lack of proper job. The most intensive part of the atypical working forms employing cheap workforce that is caused by globalization conditions, neoliberalism and excessive competition environment is made up of women and young people as the disadvantageous part of the population in Turkey as in the world (Tire, 2017).

For that reason, women unemployment is one of the problems with a priority in Turkey. The employment status and quality of the workforce countries have is one of the basic indicators of the economic developments in these countries. It is necessary that countries must include the workforce they have into production in an active way for development, as workforce is the most valuable and strategic one of the production factors just like the head in the human body. However, the women who are expected to become the motor power of the country in the development of the country in current conditions regarding the reasons mentioned could remain in an idle position because of lack of necessary opportunities. This study provides insights into women employment problematic in Turkey. Accordingly, the study begins with the definition and the measurement way of women employment and unemployment. Causes of women unemployment and the recent global labour market trends concerning women are examined. The structure of women employment and the characteristics of women unemployment in Turkey are discussed. The study is completed with the conclusive remarks comprising suggestions to policy makers concerning the issue.

2-Methods

Major data in this study have been obtained from International Labour Office-Key Indicators of Labour Market (KILM), Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and Organization for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD). Moreover, the related literatures have been used. Statistical methods such as means and percentages have been used in the study.

3-Findings and Discussion

Just as the fact that a person can use his right arm in his life but cannot use the left arm effectively is of importance, it is also important that women has a proper job and involve in employment for both a community and woman individuals. As a matter of fact, the similar finding in the report by International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2017 with regard to the importance of this problem called “Global Trends in Women Employment” are quite striking. According to ILO, with the elimination of other handicaps peculiar to country by decreasing gender discrimination particularly, both women and community and economy will gain very significant benefits. It is also estimated in the up-to-date report of ILO that if current difference between women and men could be decreased in terms of the rates of global involvement in workforce as 25%, the reflection of it to the global economy would be 5.8 trillion dollars (ilo.2017.world.pdf). For that reason, as many international expert institutions mentioned, Turkey, paying the token of women employment problem heavily, is at the 130^th rank among 145 countries in the field of Turkey Economic Involvement and Opportunities according to the report of “Global Gender Inequality” of World Economic Forum (WEF) 2015 and it is indicated that Turkey does not deserve such a rank and it is expected to improve its place. In order to realize it, it is necessary that the education level of women in Turkey, which is of importance in catching the real involvement in the social and economic life (key role in involvement in employment) as well the success, must be increased depending on the work marked and the occupations in the future; as Turkey is still at a bad performance level of 105^th rank in woman education according to WEF 2015 report. In this sense, it is of great importance to solve the problems women employment such as income distribution, poverty, and social welfare. It is of vital importance to deal with some basic indicators with regard to the women employment in Turkey in order to clarify the dimensions of the problem.

As for the profile of women employment in general employment in Turkey, it is likely to say that according to TSI 2016-2017 data, 40 million of the population is made up of men and 39 million is comprised of women in Turkey, which is regarded as a developing country as shown in the table. In the period of 2016, while men employment rate of 14-65 age group is 78%, the rate of women employment is 38%, the rate of involvement in workforce in men is 71% and 32% in women. The rate of women neither in education nor in employment is 34% while it is 13.8% in men. The rate of non-agriculture unemployment in women is 19%, it is 9.9% in men (Table, 4).

Table 4: Seasonally Unadjusted Basic Workforce Indications. June 2016 – June 2017.

Another indicator regarding the quality of woman employment is the sense of gender discrimination encountered in employment.

When it comes to the types of women employment, the involvement of women in employment, mostly in the service sector, increased year by year, as given in Table 5. However, women workers with their peculiar status only work near to men only in the agriculture sector.

Table 5: Sectors Working According to Gender in Turkey

Source: TSI 2017- HHİA

Another factor showing the quality in women employment in countries is that one can work in the public service which is mostly preferred as it has insurance. As shown in Table 6, men are overwhelmingly on the forefront in terms of public service employment.

Table 6: Distribution of Public Workers Regarding Gender

Source: State Personnel Department Presidency Statistics-2013

As of occupational branches worked, men are in the forefront at such occupations as high level manager with a rate of 90.7%, professor as 71.8%, judge as 63.7% and policeman as 94.5% compared to women. It is known that women come near to men only in such elite professions as professor with a rate of 28.2%, judge with a rate of 36.3% (TSI, Women through Statistics; 2013).

While the majority of women employment in Turkey is comprised of waged works as 65%, family workers working free of charge are in the second place with a rate of 28.4%. The rate of women working as employers is only 10%. It shows that this rate of being an employer is behind that of EU level, which is 27%. Statistics show that 46.1% work out of record. The rate for men is 28% (TSI-2015). According to all these key indicators regarding Turkey, women are behind men in labour life.

Even though it matches up with the developing countries in the world, there are some problems putting preventing women employment peculiar to Turkey. Up-to-date table of ILO showing the components preventing women employment allowing to make a universal comparison between global problems and those of Turkey give the details (Table 7).

Table 7: The Weight of Elements Preventing Women Employment According to Geographic Regions

Source: Gallup-ILO-2017

There are many reasons triggering poverty, pulling women into a disadvantageous inertia position making it different from developed countries. Some of them are; difficulty in having an access to qualitative job and education, roles of childcare and elderly care, scarcity of qualitative job in labour market, unattractiveness of unqualified jobs with low wages, preserving home and work balance. Besides that, the biggest handicap in the evaluation of woman workforce potential in Turkey well enough results from the fact that the prejudice of baseless gender discrimination in the community cannot be broken, which is not related to Turkish-Islam culture encouraging women as every other individuals to be beneficial for humanity (as a producer) with such golden key discourses as “The best of people are those who are most beneficial to other people”, “Learning science is obligatory upon both man and woman”, “The giving hand is better than taking hand”, “If two days of a person are equal, he is in loss”, “Paradise is beneath the feet of mothers” with an idea of training qualitative people (Acar,2015). The main problem results from illiteracy and from the prejudiced perspective for women who are the main stones of a healthy community. For that reason, there is a serious need for following up a positive discriminative attitude toward our daughters and women who have to start a disadvantageous life in unconscious societies by having such a prejudiced attitude. In the sense of standing still on her own and having a tie with life, providing adequate education and proper job opportunities required by the positive discrimination principle written in the constitution of a social state in order to improve the skills of poor and needy women in disadvantageous position particularly in developing countries like Turkey is of great importance.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Training women having the most strategical significance in the development of communities and preparing the people for the future would only be possible through making them have a fully equipped job in all sense. Otherwise, becoming free from the position of a weak country accepting aids and orders is hard as it is not possible to run with only one leg. In general, the problem of woman employment which is peculiar to underdeveloped or developing countries has some many dimensions such as gender discrimination, lack of proper and humanely job, work and family balance problems. However, as a solution, it is necessary at first hand to believe the importance of the involvement of women, the milestones of a community, in employment principally. In addition, it is expected that the state as the as the main role player must be leading in solving all problems comprising a handicap for women employment as a principle of a social state in the constitution through international treaties (UN CEDAW, ILO) to support the development of a society (Turkish Constitution, Articles 10, 41, 49, 50); as solving the problem of women employment leading to chaos in the globalization conditions bringing about an excessive comparison peculiar to our age do not look so easy. For these reasons, it is necessary provide qualitative vocational education to allow women to improve their talents, a nursery school where they will not have any familial problems, social service aids like care and bus service etc., a proper job, secured but flexible working conditions and opportunities in order to solve such preliminary problems preventing women employment. As a conclusion, it is known to us that women who are in a disadvantageous position in many ways compared to men in a society are prone to any kind of exploitation mainly to labour in the materialist, excessive competition working environment as a product of a capitalist system. As a solution, it is necessary to support women through social policies to be followed by all official and voluntary institutions in a society in order to prevent such kind of destructive problems.

It is necessary for a healthy result to get the balance of production-consumption and wage trio in economies in the first hand in order to prevent women unemployment and poverty. For that reason, making all the activities to be carried out both at micro and macro levels aiming at competing against the women unemployment to have a focal point of teaching people how to catch fish instead of giving them fish and of a good employment should be evaluated as the most important task out of the ones envisaged as the principle of a social state. Because of all these reasons, making the young adapt to society means making them employed first.

It is likely to say in this context that the eventual exit is to give them equal opportunity in work life, politics, economy, in all stages of life to take active responsibility and provide them with the chance to involve in the decision making positions at every stage.

Sources