Variation in labor market participation of married women in Turkey

Abstract

We explore the role of paid work in women ' IntroductionThe labor market participation (LMP) of women varies much among developing countries. There are countries were over 60 percent of adult women is gainfully employed (e.g. Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Ghana), but there are also countries (e.g. Algeria, Egypt, Iran) where less than 20 percent of women is engaged in one or another form of paid labor (ILO, 2006; UN, 2007). Given the central role of work for the empowerment of women, it is important to increase our understanding of the factors that promote or hinder female employment in developing countries. In this paper, we aim to do this by studying the factors that influence women's LMP in Turkey. Turkey is a very interesting case for such a study, because it combines a low level of women's LMP with a strong polarization among the women who are employed. Whereas only one third of married women in Turkey declares themselves to be employed, and many of these women work as (often unpaid) family workers, there is also a small group of highly educated professional women who occupy high-status white collar jobs in the formal economy (ILO, 2006;Gündüz-Hoşgör, 1997; SIS, 2006;Tansel, 2002). To gain insight into the mechanisms underlying this variation, we analyze the effects of socio-economic, cultural, demographic, and geographic background factors on the employment status and occupational position of women in Turkey. Being employed is seen as a major instrument in making women less dependent on their families, which may free them from the suppressing influence of the patriarchal ideologies that stress a subordinate position of women.Central in the paper is the labor market position of married women, categorized as "housewife", "unpaid or paid farm worker", "manual worker", "lower nonmanual worker" or "upper nonmanual worker". Using a large individual-level data set, we determine the effects of characteristics of the women themselves, of their husbands and the households they are living in, and of their (family-)backgrounds on their chances of being in each of these labor market positions. We also study whether there are differences in labor market position between women living in different regions of Turkey, between women living in cities or in the countryside, and between migrant women (who Women's employment in Turkey 3 may be less influenced by their families) and woman who stayed in their region of origin.In the next section, we present an overview of the literature relevant for women's LMP in developing countries. After that, we focus on the situation in Turkey. Theoretical BackgroundRegarding the factors that may influence the labor market position of women in developing countries, several theoretical positions can be distinguished. First, there is classical modernization theory, which relates a country's rate of female LMP to the country's phase in the modernization process by which agrarian societies are transformed into post-industrial ones. Processes that go together with industrialization --like changes in the...

Estimating the Causal Effect of Fertility on Women’s Employment in Africa Using Twins

“…2009, p. 354). Although in some cases there is only a small or non-linear relationship between the level of education and women's employment, in general education has a positive effect on the labor force participation of both married and single women (Gundüz-Hosgör & Smits, 2008;Spierings et al, 2010;Yakubu, 2010).…”

“…Women who were employed in farming were included in the non-employed category, as the focus of our study is on women's participation in non-farm work. The reason for this is that for women entering the non-farm labor force generally is a greater step towards economic independence and more likely to be socially recognized than engaging in farm work (Spierings et al, 2010;Gundüz-Hosgör & Smits, 2008).…”

“…Ever since the pioneering work of Mincer (1962), women's labor force participation has been studied extensively in both developed and developing countries (Bloom et al, 2009;Mammen & Paxson, 2000;Steiber & Haas, 2012;Besamusca et al, 2015). According to these studies, women in developing countries are mostly involved in non-market activities, at home, in the family business, or in other informal sector work, although a pronounced increase in the contribution of women to modern sector employment activities has also been noticed (Gundüz-Hosgör & Smits, 2008;Besamusca et al, 2015). The latter is partly due to the advances made in females' educational attainment and the expansion of the market economy (TandrayenRagoobur et al, 2011).…”

Fen ve Mühendislik Alanlarında Kariyer: Eğitim Sürecinde Kız Öğrenciler ve Çokdilli/Çokkültürlü Öğrencilerin Deneyimleri

“…Bununla birlikte istatistiksel veriler Türkiye'de de özellikle mühendislik ve bilgisayar alanlarından mezun olan kız öğrenci sayısının erkek öğrenci sayısına göre çok daha az olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır (ÖSYM, 2012). Bazı araştırmacılar izlenen bu devlet politikalarının geleneksel cinsiyet rollerini sorgulayıcı kapsamda olmadığını (Gündüz-Hoşgör & Smits, 2008), bu nedenle toplumun kadınların mühendislik gibi alanlara katılımı konusundaki önyargısının devam ettiğini ifade etmektedir (Küskü, Özbilgin & Özkale, 2007). Bunun yanında birçok araştırmacı, Türkiye gibi gelişmekte olan ülkelerde iyi bir eğitim alarak fen ve mühendislik alanlarında kariyer sahibi olmada en etkili faktörün sosyoekonomik düzey olduğunu da vurgulamıştır (Gündüz-Hoşgör & Smits, 2008;Tansel, 2002).…”

“…Özellikle Türkiye'nin doğu bölgelerinde yaygın olan ataerkil ideoloji çerçevesinde kalıplaşmış olan cinsiyet rollerine göre kadınların başlıca sorumluluk alanı ev işleri ve çocuk bakımı olarak görülmektedir (Gündüz-Hoşgör & Smits, 2008;Özbilgin & Healy, 2004). Her ne kadar "modernleşme" ve "Batılılaşma" süreci içerisinde Türkiye'de kadınlara verilmiş olan bazı haklar olsa da, ataerkil yapı ve cinsiyet rolleri sorgulanmadığından kadınlar erkeklere göre eğitim alma ve kariyer sahibi olma konusunda dezavantajlı durumda olmaya devam etmiştir.…”