The Impact of Neoliberal Policies on Women’s Employment in Turkey

Abstract

With the global expansion of neoliberalism since the 1970s. Many developing countries has adopted export-led growth model like Turkey. Changes in production processes and reduction of the state's pro-labor audit with neoliberal policies have had a direct impact on labor markets by transforming the forms and areas of employment into a more flexible an informal character. However, women's labor has been adversely affected by patriarchy which includes gender ideology and practices. While in most places-adopted this growth model-women labor has taken place the main locomotive of production, a similar increase has not experienced in Turkey that adopted same growth model in recent time and had similar patriarchal condition with these countries. Therefore, in the study, it is aimed to understand the effect of neoliberal policies on women's employment in Turkey. At this point, data from the TURKSTAT household surveys and field studies were used for employment data. In conclusion, it is seen that the rate of women's employment has not increased while employment quality has deteriorated in a manner consistent with global trends due to Turkey's specific economic conditions, the impact of private and public patriarchy.