Turkey's private sector must take action to improve environment for working mothers

The French Development Agency and the French consular general, Muriel Domenach, hosted a two-day event on women's access to decent work this week. Held in a beautifully decorated hall, with gilded plaster decorations and beautiful floors, the discussions were invigorating and inspiring. Important issues were discussed and vital subjects were examined. The event was a very valuable exchange of views between Turkish and French representatives; it was also a chance for people from different parts of Turkish society to come together and discuss problems shared.

The first day consisted of a round table on Women's Access to and Retention to Decent Work in Turkey. The second was a seminar on Child Care and Women's Access to Decent Work: Perspectives from France and Turkey.

What emerged from these events was that Turkey has a long way to go in getting women into employment. Many new regulations have been introduced to make it easier for women to get into work, but without creches or day care being more widely available, women with children will find it hard to work or to return to work.

At the same time, families need to be convinced that institutions like creches are reliable and safe for their children. Any creche or day care must include the family, helping the parents to make the most of what time they have to spend with their children.

Turkey is a developing country, and as such must include women in the work force. The new regulations allow women optional extended maternity leave, give them the option of flexi-time until the child reaches school age, as well as time off for nursing.

How surprised I was to hear one presenter state that the government had introduced these laws to ensure that women remain trapped in the home. Her contention was that no company would employ a woman under these conditions.

That argument coming from a woman was shocking. First of all, it struck me that these were out-of-date feminist reflexes. This is the feminism of the 1970s, the feminism that tells women that they have to live like men to succeed in a "man's" world. I am no expert on feminism, but what I have been hearing over the past 10 years is a feminism that is much more advanced.

The women I have talked to in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States - as well as in Turkey - describe their approach to feminism, to women's rights in a different way. They stress that we must recognize a woman's right to be a mother. When this right is taken away from her, when she is forced to choose between family and a career, a woman is, yet again, oppressed.

The laws in Turkey have been introduced to ensure that a woman can be a mother and a career woman. If the companies are reluctant to hire a woman due to flexi-hours and maternity leave, then perhaps some incentives need to be added. Or perhaps the companies should realize that without women in the work force, without women who feel respected and appreciated, the company and the country cannot progress very far.

It is the government's duty to introduce laws. It is down to the private sector to implement them in the best way possible.

But the second issue that struck me was that until two years ago women with headscarves could not work in public offices. A decade ago women with headscarves could not attend university or high school. When the fact that recent research reveals that over 60 percent of women in Turkey wear the headscarf, the impact on women's employment is obvious.

Not enough time has passed for all these women to be re-included in the work force. Turkey is behind many countries in the percentage of women in employment, but the blame should not be laid at the door of the present government. The blame belongs to those who excluded over half of the female workforce from public life before.

One other issue brought up during the conference was that companies do not set up creches because it is financially easier for the companies to pay the fine of just over TL 1,000 ($350) rather than meeting the high cost of establishing creches in accordance with the law.

Herein lies the problem. The idea that it is better to pay a fine than to comply with the law, I hate to say, is very Turkish. Major companies should be law-abiding, whether or not obeying the law incurs a greater initial financial outlay. In the long-run the company will have happier and more productive employees. If companies need to be compelled to implement institutions that will be beneficial to their work force and to the country, then the ethics of such companies need to be questioned.

To lay the blame on the government for the failure of companies to take the employment of women seriously does not solve the problem. The government is obviously sincere in its desire to see more women in the workforce; to be otherwise would be foolish. The problem is the mentality here that the entire onus belongs to the state. It is the private sector and the third sector that need to step up to help create a Turkey that is more livable for both men and women.

It is highly likely that the two-seminar seeded enough good ideas for progress to be made for women in employment. The hard work by the French Development Agency in organizing this event will surely bear fruit.