Work and family reconciliation in Turkey: young women as a vulnerable group in the labour market

ABSTRACT

Women are considered one of the most vulnerable groups in Turkey in terms of their labour market participation. This article explores the changing features of work and family reconciliation; the possible effects of newly introduced labour market policies on flexibility, and childcare arrangements. The vulnerability of women – young women in particular – in the labour market manifests itself in two areas: access to the labour market and staying in the labour market. The problems of access and continuity can be explained by difficulties in reconciling work and family life and by a labour market structure that creates vulnerabilities for young women, particularly those with a low level of education who engage in informal and precarious jobs. We argue that policies that aim to support women’s employment are situated in the wider context of policies that are designed to promote flexible employment practices, and as such, their capacity for creating decent work opportunities for women is questioned. Furthermore, in the absence of adequate public childcare (which reflects the traditional gender division of labour within the family), ostensibly women-friendly measures fail to produce the desired outcome: an increase in female employment. Flexible measures end up increasing the vulnerability of young women who are engaged in precarious jobs. This situation will persist unless policies are instituted that reconcile work and family and that address gender and class inequalities by providing extensive childcare facilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Young women
• work and family reconciliation
• employment
• youth employment
• Turkey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Ministry of Labour and Social Security. 2014. National Employment Strategy (2012–2023), November 2014. Accessed 2 March 2018. http://www.uis.gov.tr/Media/Books/UIS-en.pdf.

2. https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=LFS_SEXAGE_I_R.

3. Statistics obtained from TurkStat.

4. Statistics obtained from TurkStat.

5. Statistics obtained from TurkStat.

6. Statistics obtained from TurkStat. We were not provided with the statistics for women with/without children for that age group, as it would provide a biased data explained by TUIK.

7. Statistics obtained from TurkStat.

8. Statistics obtained from TurkStat.

9. OECD Family Database http://www.oecd.org/els/family/database.htm.

10. http://turkishlaborlaw.com/turkish-labor-law-no-4857/19-4857-labor-law-english-by-article.

11. Accessed 4 March 2017, http://www.keig.org/?p=2786 .

12. The Circular on ‘Increasing Women’s Employment and Achieving Equal Opportunity.’ 25 May 2010. The Official Gazette (Number: 27,591) URL: http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2010/05/20100525-12.htm .

13. The new labour law includes an atypical form of employment: employment via temporary employment agencies. The law provides for the establishment of temporary employment agencies, which serve companies by hiring workers for them under a temporary four-month work agreement that can be renewed only once.

Additional information

Funding

This publication is part of the ETHOS research program funded by the European Union Horizon2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 727112.