The Women in Statistics bulletin published by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Friday, ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, sheds light on many aspects of women's daily lives. The focus of the bulletin is women's employment, an issue Turkey strives to address. Based on figures from 2020, the bulletin found that 26.3% of women in the country over the age of 15 were employed, while this figure was 59.8% among men.
The labor force participation rate among people aged 15 and over was 30.9% in 2020 for women, compared to 68.2% for men.
Statistics show the Black Sea region had the highest female employment rate, namely in the provinces of Trabzon, Ordu, Giresun, Rize, Artvin and Gümüşhane, while the lowest rate was seen in the region spanning the southeastern and eastern provinces of Mardin, Batman, Şırnak and Siirt.
According to statistics, women’s participation in the workforce increased proportionately with their education level. The rate was only 12.4% among illiterate women, while an overwhelming 65.6% of women in the workforce were graduates of higher learning institutions. Female high school graduates also made up 29.9% of women in the workforce.
On the other hand, women outpaced men in part-time jobs. Some 19.5% of women had a part-time job while this figure was 9.3% for men. In terms of women with children, 25.2% of mothers aged between 25 and 49 with children below the age of 3 were working.
Women also boosted their standing in middle- and high-level management positions in the business world. The rate of women in those positions rose to 19.3% according to 2020 figures, compared to 14.4% in 2012, the latest year with available official statistics.
In other areas, 17.4% of lawmakers were women as of 2021. Women held 101 seats in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM), compared to the 481 seats occupied by men. The number of female professors rose to 32.4% during the 2020-2021 school year. The number of female ambassadors, on the other hand, dropped to 73.5% in 2021, compared to 88.1% in 2011.
In education, the rate of women who graduated from at least one school (middle school, high school, university and so on) was 87.7% for women. The rate of women aged 25 and above and who graduated from university rose to 19.9% in 2020, compared to 7.6% in 2008.
Speaking at an event organized by a women's association in Istanbul on Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said while the genders are balanced in several fields, Turkey is still not "on the desired level" in terms of women's employment and their involvement in decision-making mechanisms.
Women also tended to marry at an earlier age than men according to TurkStat. Data from 2021 showed that women married at 25 for the first time on average, while men married at 28. Women in Tunceli in the east married the latest, on average at the age of 28. Statistics indicate that 15.4% of women had a higher level of education than their spouses.
The majority of women are employed in the 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. Also, to encourage more women to reenter the workforce after giving 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.
