President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed a gathering of women in Istanbul where the government announced an action plan for women’s empowerment. His speech concentrated on "hypocrisy" and "double standards" on women’s rights.

Erdoğan said in his speech that under the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) governments, they did not confine their policies for women to "slogans" and launched a number of projects, from prevention of violence targeting women to improving their rights and freedoms.

"We did everything so women can play a more active role and we will do more. We endeavored to improve women’s social status with innovative practices," he said.

The president, on the other hand, lambasted those discriminating against women while advocating women’s rights. His criticism was directed at the discriminatory attitude toward women wearing headscarves. He also hit out at "certain politicians insulting housewives," referring to an opposition politician who demeaned the AK Party voters by saying they were comprised of "housewives who did not know better."

He said fierce advocates of women’s rights who raised their voices on every occasion of violation of women’s rights have never raised their voices for thousands of innocent people slaughtered in Palestine. Women and children make up the majority of victims in Gaza. "Have you heard those who attempt to teach lessons on rights to humanity raise their voice against Israel? Did you hear the Council of Europe, which criticized Türkiye in the past, say anything about Israel except their blatant support for Israel?" he said.

Action plan for women

Erdoğan said working for women’s rights should not be confined to March 8. "We are working to achieve our goals in the Century of Türkiye based on the axis of ‘strong woman, strong family and strong country,’" he said. Erdoğan pledged to do more to improve the lives of women.

The "Second Strategy Paper and Action Plan on Women’s Empowerment" unveiled on Friday covers the next four years and was prepared through input from relevant agencies and institutions, in line with "Century of Türkiye," the government’s ambitious program of reforms in the centenary of the Republic of Türkiye.

The plan includes five basic goals, 20 strategies and 83 actions and it concentrates on women’s participation in education, health care, economy, leadership and decision-making mechanisms as well as the impact of the environment and climate change on women’s issues.

In education, women’s literacy rate will be increased to 100% to achieve the goal of women’s full access to education and lifelong learning courses.

Thousands of women forced to drop out of school early in their lives will have a second chance to resume their education thanks to a nationwide campaign spearheaded by first lady Emine Erdoğan and the government. The campaign helped women enroll in schools while lifelong learning courses across the country offered literacy classes for those who were unable to attend school early in their lives. The project allows women to sign up for high schools offering distance learning opportunities. The high schools allow participants to graduate at the end of eight semesters. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the proportion of "women aged 25 years and over completing at least one level of education" was 86.7% in 2022, statistics published earlier this week show.

For health care, the government plans to provide integrated, comprehensive health care for all women and girls under the action plan. Official "life tables" show women have a longer life expectancy than men in Türkiye.

As for the economy, the Strategy Paper and Action Plan aims to ensure full, equal and efficient access of women to changing labor markets and help them obtain new skills and talents as the labor market adapts to green and digital transformation.

The plan also aims to increase the representation of women on local and national levels in leadership and decision-making mechanism and their efficient participation in decision-making processes.

The government will also carry out efforts to address the impact of environment and climate change on women and girls.

The rate of women in employment still lags behind men in Türkiye. In 2022, it was 30.4%, while the labor force participation rate of women was 35.1% for women in the same year. The labor force participation rate, however, increased for women per their level of education. TurkStat figures show the labor force participation of women who graduated from higher education institutions was 68.8% in 2022, while it was 13.9% among illiterate women.