Turkey’s efforts to boost women’s employment, which still lags behind men, continue with a new project. The Social Security Institution (SGK) teamed up with the European Union (EU) for the Women Up project to give women more opportunities in the business world.

Women Up provides a maximum of 320 euros ($355) allowance to female employers for hiring women, on the condition that the cost of recruits will not exceed 65% of total costs. By 2022, employers will be provided with a monthly stipend of around $282 (TL 3,984). The project will continue for 32 months.

Donations will be available for employers and employees in the provinces of Şanlıurfa, Aydın, Kahramanmaraş, the capital Ankara, Samsun, Denizli and Istanbul. The provinces were specifically picked based on the high number of female employers. Some 8,000 employers and employees will benefit from the project, which can be applied through Turkey’s e-governance website.

SGK President Cevdet Ceylan said they aim to encourage female entrepreneurs, make them stronger against the competition and decrease unregistered women labor.

Women Up primarily caters to small businesses with nine and fewer employees and seeks to boost the number of women employees.

Ceylan said unregistered labor and lack of female labor were the primary issues Turkey’s social security system faced. "Women’s participation in the workforce is also important for economic growth, to reduce poverty. Compared to men, both in Turkey and in the world, women are comparatively less employed. However, compared to men, women are less employed in Turkey and globally. We have a social security law to introduce affirmative action for women, and Turkey is also pursuing various projects to boost women's employment," Ceylan noted.

He highlighted that the number of women with social security had reached about 5.1 million in late 2021, compared to about 1 million in 2002.

The applications to Women Up began on Feb. 21. Female employers are eligible to apply if they have nine employees at most or none at the moment and if they set up their business after March 5, 2012. Employers whose unpaid premium debt is less than gross minimum wage are also eligible for application. Authorities plan to give away free loans to 900 employers in Ankara, 500 in Samsun and 400 each in other provinces included in the project. Employers are also required to employ women aged 65 and below and should not be pensioners or related to the employer for eligibility.

Women’s participation in the workforce is around 26%, according to official figures from 2020. It is far below the average of 48% in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and 62% in EU countries. The majority are employed in service and agriculture sectors, though Turkey seeks to diversify the employment statistics. Female entrepreneurs flourish in the country thanks to a string of incentives provided by the government and, in some cases like Women Up, jointly funded with the EU.

Also, to encourage more women to reenter the workforce after they gave up their careers to raise children, the government offers partial coverage of daycare costs for working mothers. It also increased the length of maternity leave for working women, and grandparents looking after the children also are entitled to allowances as part of the employment scheme. Other incentives include financial support for women’s cooperatives and interest-free loans for female entrepreneurs.

Ceylan said at an event to introduce the project on Tuesday in the capital Ankara that the unregistered labor rate decreased more among women compared to men but unregistered labor was still higher in small businesses. Unregistered labor means financial losses for the country's macroeconomy and a lack of access for employees to social security benefits, something essential, especially for women who often depend on their spouses for a livelihood. Economic independence with social security is also essential for women, especially in light of domestic violence cases where women are sometimes forced to stay in a troubled relationship plagued by violence inflicted by their husbands and boyfriends due to a lack of economic means.