Seyhan Aydinligil 3

Turkey has been a constitutional republic since 1923; it became a multi-party political system in 1946. It is ruled by a parliamentary democracy, where the government is accountable to the parliament, which elects the president. Turkey is one of the world’s 20 largest economies. Its GDP reached US$400 billion and GDP per capita US$5500 in 2006. Following a recovery from a serious economic crisis in 2001, Turkey has succeeded in reducing monetary poverty, from about 28 per cent of the population in 2003 to about 18 per cent in 2006. Less than 0.01 per cent of the population live on US$1/day. However, some social indicators continue to lag behind those of countries with similar incomes.

Turkey’s five-year vision for development, as outlined in its Ninth Develop- ment Plan 2007–2013, is to become ‘a country with an information society, growing in stability, sharing more equitably, globally competitive and fully (completing) her coherence with the European Union.’ Equitable human and social development is a key government goal. But the development process does not always benefit men and women equally. A review of the situation of women in Turkey over the course of several decades reflects that, despite progress on many fronts, their status remains vulnerable.

Women received the legal rights to vote, to elect and become elected in the years immediately following the declaration of the republic in 1923. But other legal reforms aimed at greater gender equity in labour markets, and in the educational and health systems, were only implemented much later. In 1985, Turkey became a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of all kinds of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), eventually ratifying it. In line with the CEDAW recommendations, a General Directorate of Women’s Status and Problems was established in 1990, under the auspices of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. In 1991, the Directorate became administratively affiliated to the Prime Ministry, and the same year, the State Ministry responsible for Women’s Affairs and Family was established. While these institutional and legal improvements have undoubtedly been important, particularly in terms of improving educational and labour participation, women in Turkey continue to experience significant setbacks. The evidence indicates that women’s needs, and their concerns for equal participation with men, in the educational, health, economic and political domains have not yet been adequately addressed. Basic human development indicators for women are low compared to other middle- income countries and new EU member states, as Table 13.1 illustrates. There continue to be major challenges and structural barriers to attaining gender equity in all domains.

POLICY CASE STUDIES

Table 13.1 Gender equality-related statistics compared to other

middle-income countries, 2005

Turkey Argentina Mexico Bulgaria

Ratio of girls to boys in: Primary education

0.95 0.99 1.00 0.99 Secondary education

0.74 1.07 1.03 0.98 Tertiary education

0.73 1.51 0.98 1.16 Ratio of literate women to men

98.4 99.8 Share of female wage employment in non-agricultural

labour force 19.9 45.5 37.4 53.0 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

9.1 36.5 25.0 22.1 Gender Empowerment Measure

Source: Millennium Development Goals Report, Turkey, 2005.

In the 2008/09 Human Development Report, the Gender-related Development Index (GDI), which is simply the HDI adjusted downward for gender inequality, is 0.780, compared to its HDI value of 0.798 (Table 13.2). Out of the 157 countries with both HDI and GDI values, Turkey comes in 126th position. A total of 125 countries have thus a better ratio than Turkey’s. In terms of ranking, Turkey’s HDI is 76th out of 179 countries with data.

Table 13.2 The GDI compared to the HDI – with data for 2006 GDI as % of HDI

Life expectancy at birth: Adult literacy: female Combined primary, female as % male

as % male

secondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratio: female as % male

1. Sweden (99.9%) 1. Russian Federation

1. Lesotho

1. United Arab Emirates

124. Singapore (97.9%) 64. Panama (107.1%) 92. Madagascar (85.3%) 128. Burundi (87.7%) 125. Burkina Faso

93. Syrian Arab Republic 129. Cambodia (87.7%) (97.9%) (107.1%)

65. Rwanda

126. Turkey (97.8%) 66. Turkey (107.0%) 94. Turkey (83.7%) 130. Turkey (87.6%)

131. Morocco (86.1%) 128. Mozambique

132. Korea (Republic of) (97.8%)

68. United States

96. Tanzania (82.6%)

(106.9%) (85.7%) 156. Occupied

157. Chad (60.4%) Palestinian Territories (92.8%)

157. Niger (96.9%)

135. Chad (31.3%)

Source: UNDP, Country Fact Sheet-Turkey 2008 (www.hdr.undp.org/en/statistics).

The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) reveals whether women take an active part in economic and political life. It tracks the share of seats in parliament held by women; of female legislators, senior officials and managers; and of female professional and technical workers; and the gender disparity in earned income, reflecting economic independence. GEM thus exposes inequality in opportunities in selected areas. In 2008 (with 2006 data), Turkey was ranked 101st out of 108 countries where GEMs were available, with a value of 0.371.

Seyhan Aydinligil 3