The state of women in Turkey
Published 06 Mar,2021 via Hürriyet Daily News - The UNDP started issuing Human Development Reports in 1990. In the past three decades, there have been two countries that rapidly climbed the scales to reach the report’s “very high human development” category: Singapore and Turkey. Note that the populations of these countries are 5.6 million and 82 million, respectively.
Turkey had an impressive economic development report and transformed itself from an agrarian economy into a bustling industrial country. Amidst this rapid shape-shifting, the single most important failure has been on the role of women in the country. Why?
Let us look at the figures. The female labor force participation rate for the women of working age (15-64 years old), is only around 34.8 percent. The same figure is 74.9 percent for men. In Germany, 75 percent of working-age women are employed, and in Japan, 73 percent are. Turkey’s economy is producing with one hand behind its back.
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Güven Sak