The rate of female employment has disproportionately been low in Turkey with comparison to EU countries while the rate of female inactivity has again been disproportionately high. The joint of effect of the rural-urban migration since the 1950s and the limited employment creation capacity of the Turkish economy are seen as reasons for the withdrawal of women from the labour force and the resultant high female inactivity. Within this structure there are neither gender sensitive macro-economic policies nor government initiative to stimulate the demand for women’s labour and to generate gender equality in the labour market. In Turkey, the Labour Law enacted in 2003, despite some remaining problems, operates parallel with the gender equality directives of the EU. Yet, in such areas as maternity leave, pension and benefit systems implementation lags behind and concrete policies have, so far, hardly been effective in bringing gender equality at the workplace and in the labour market. Thus, this article aims to provide a critical discussion of the implications of gender equality policies on women’s employment in Turkey and to assess whether these policies will positively affect and bring those inactive women into the labour market.
Primary Language | Turkish |
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Journal Section | Research Article |
Authors | |
Publication Date | January 1, 2009 |
Published in Issue | Year 2009 Volume: 2 Issue: 21 |