You start at the top of the list where you find the usual Nordic high achievers -- Iceland, Finland and Norway. Not much further down, there are major achievements by less likely candidates, such as South Africa and Lesotho, which both made it into the top 10 countries this year.But to find Turkey in the tables, you have to move down, down, down until you nearly reach the bottom of the list. In 129th place, it is followed only by Saudi Arabia, Benin, Pakistan, Chad and Yemen. The report itself mentions Turkey’s worsening performance, with women’s labor force participation slipping from 29 percent to 26 percent. There were minor gains in leadership positions, where the ratio of women legislators, senior officials and managers rose from 8 percent to 10 percent, but overall the situation has regressed rather than improved.
Here is the paradox. Turkey is actively promoting its role as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, yet many of the countries in the regions, surprisingly, have actually overtaken Turkey on the gender front. At home, the government is taking important steps to address the democratic deficit with bold initiatives to solve the Kurdish issue and attempts to reach out to minorities.
Yet for half of Turkey’s population, the one that still isn’t adequately represented in public life, progress has stalled and there is no sign that the authorities believe it is even needed. Of course, initiatives like the recent agreement concluded between the State Ministry for Family and Women’s Affairs and the police to ensure that victims of domestic violence are taken more seriously and officers following their cases are held accountable are very welcome. But Turkish leaders still believe that a woman’s place is in the home.
The television series “Mad Men,” set in the very early ‘60s, presents an American version of traditional gender roles. It focuses on young male advertising executives, who make their way up in offices where the only women are secretaries before returning to homes in the suburbs where they are met by immaculately groomed wives and their 2.2 children.
Fast forward to 2009 and the social picture has evolved drastically. According to a report just published by Maria Shriver for the Centre for American Progress, women now make up half of the workforce. The women’s movement launched the trend toward greater female involvement and economic forces did the rest, driving millions of women into the workforce. Yet, as the report points out, the policy landscape, as well as social attitudes, are still stuck in an idealized past.
Today, harsh economic realities in the United States are driving the latest trend. Nearly 40 percent of women are now the primary breadwinner in their family, not necessarily because they are single parents -- divorce rates are declining because people tend to marry later -- but because many husbands and fathers have lost their jobs in the recent economic downturn.
Here in Turkey, the question is not “if” more Turkish women will eventually enter the workforce, but rather “when” and “how.” There is a growing middle class that wants improved living standards. At the lower end of the job market, many Turkish women are already employed, but they do so uninsured and often exploited, in a situation not unlike that of the invisible immigrant women in the US.
Starting late on the path toward greater participation of women in public life allows Turkey to shop around for the best policies to support a social transformation that will undoubtedly happen in the coming years. With poor parental support policies, the American model is not an enviable one. Turkey would do better to look at the countries that occupy the top of the Gender Gap list, which have improved the gender balance with strong social policies and, in the process, have made life easier for women, men and their children.
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