Impacts of the Activities on Women During The Last Ten Years in Turkey

Prof.Dr.Ayşe Akın Başkent University Research and Implementation Center on

Woman-Child Health and Family Planning

Presentation plan:

Activities on women during last ten years in Turkey and current situation:

Education

Labor force participation

Employement and unemployement

Health

Violence against women

Participation in decision making mechanisms

Conclusion

EDUCATION

Currently 35% of the population is under the age of 20 in Turkey, so Turkey has a young population and most of them attend schools

Literacy rate in Turkey used to be 20% in 1930s which increased steadily, however the gap between male and female remained.

Indicators show that school attendance increased in both sexes by years, however female education could not reached at a desired level, they always remained behind .

Education continued…

According to the UN Report of “2007-2008, for the “human development index"; Turkey is ranked as 84 th among 177 countries. Therefore Turkey is considered as “mid level developed country”.

In Turkey there are 14.817.654 students in formal education (2007/08), 47 % of them are female students.

Primary school attendance is the highest and higher education attendance is the lowest in females in Turkey

Literacy rates in Turkey by years and sexes (1935-2000)

0

20

40

60

80

100

1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 2000

MALE FEMALE

Kaynak: DİE Genel Nüfus Sayım Sonuçları, TÜİK, Türkiye İstatistik Yıllığı, 2006.

Iliteracy in Turkey

There are more than 7 million illiterate people in Turkey where most of them are women

Illiteracy is increased in the both sexes from younger age to older ,from urban to rural and from western part to the east.

According to the last census (2000) 19.4 % of the population is illiterate and 75.5% of them are female.

Iliteracy in Turkey…….

Literacy rate has been increased continuously by years. Adult literacy rate was 85.3% in 1997 which increased to 88.1% in 2006.

For women: 76.9% increased to 80.4%. For men: It increased to 96% in 2006. Last 10 years literacy and education levels of

the female population has been increased significantly in Turkey, but still 100% literacy target has not been reached yet.

Currently 1 out of 6 women is illiterate and 1 out of 6 women has not graduated from any type of schools.

Adult Literacy rates by years and sexes (1997-2006)

Kaynak: TÜİK Nüfus ve Kalkınma Göstergeleri verileri.

Preschool Education

There are 2.5 million children between the age of 4 – 6 years. 25 % of them are attending to the preschool education, 47.8% of them are girls.

Although the ratio of the preschool education attendance doubled during last years still it is far behind the level of the EU countries where this attendance is 80%.

Primary Education

Since 1997 primary education has been increased to 8 years and it is compulsory and free of charge at the government schools

Primary education attendance has been increased significantly since 1997

Net school enrolment rate was 84.7 % in 1997 which was increased to 97,37 % in 2007

For female: It is increased from 78,97% to 96,14%

For male: It is increased from 90,25 to 98,53

Secondary Education Secondary education is 4 years in Turkey

and it is not compulsory In 2007/08 school years there are 3.245.322

students at the secondary education where 44.8 % are female.

For female: net enrolment ratio was 34.16 % in 1997 which is increased to 55.81 % in 2007

For male: net enrolment ratio was 41.39 % in 1997 which is increased to 61.17 % in 2007

That ratio is over 90 % in EU Countries.

Higher Education

For female who completed primary and secondary education entering the higher education is more easy

Currently there are 6.5 million people at university age group , 2.45 million of them are attending the university education, which is below EU average.

Demand for higher education is significantly increased during last years

Net University enrolment ratio is increased from 10.25 % to 20.14% between 1997 to 2007 in general

Higher Education

For female: Net enrolment ratio of higher education was 9.17% in 1997 which was increased by 103% and reached to 18.66%.

Selection of the subjects in higher education is very much influenced by gender factors

Labor force participation is increased by level of education in women

Mass Education

In addition of the activities of the MoE on mass education many civil societies and NGOs voluntarily organize courses for women and municipalities are also run mass education programs for women free of charge

Mass education continue…. Increased importance is given to the female

education in Turkey however there are so many barriers which prevent to use equal opportunities like many other developing countries

Summary of those factors : Gender role which is exist in traditional societies.

Traditional patriarchal type of families , tend to keep the girls at home not sending to schools for education.

Early age of marriage If one of the children is given opportunity for

education male child is given priority by the families

Policies followed and programs carried out : Turkey signed all the decisions made at the IV th

World Conference on Women in Beijing without any reservation. One of the 12 critical areas of concern is “education and training of women”

In 1996 “National Action Plan” was prepared, which includes the following actions: To ensure that Women should get equal share as men in

formal and in non-formal education (ensure equal access to education)

Elimination all terminologies of sexism or discriminatory items in education materials

To increase the female literacy ratio to 100%

Some examples of the actions which ensure to provide equal opportunities for education for male and female in Turkey: In the 8th and 9th Development plans which cover the

years 2001–2013, education was emphasized. Regional boarding schools (YİBO), Provision of transportation for the Primary

education program Project on the decreasing the social risk (SRAP) –

donation to support for the education of the children

Campaigns and programs carried out like; A hundred percent support for education “Girls let’s go to school- Haydi Kızlar Okula”, “Daddy send me to school- Baba Beni Okula Gönder” and “support for the basic education- Mother and daughter at school- ana kız okuldayız, literacy campaigns“

Examples continued…….

During the campaigns it was realized that there were 273.447 girls who never attended to schools, with the programs at the provinces 81% of them started to go to school.

“Kardelens – contemporary girls of contemporary Turkey -Kardelenler-Çağdaş Türkiye’nin Çağdaş Kızları” This very important project is carried out by an NGO and in this project 12.300 girls received scholarship, 7380 students graduated from secondary education,950 students started university education, 67 students finished University education. As this project was considered very successful it is extended till year 2015.

“Mother-Father and Child education project-Anne-Baba-Çocuk Eğitimi Projesi”.

Project on “Strengthening vocational education and training system” . In this project effective intersectoral collaboration is being done.

PARTICIPATION IN LABOR FORCE AND EMPLOYEMENT

In all ages labor force participation is lower in women compare with men. Infact this participation even decreasing further by years.

Education is the most significant influential factor in female labor force participation

Labor force participation is increased as the education level of women is increase.

There is a hidden female unemployment in Turkey. Patriarchal attitude prevent women from working life in rural and urban parts.

PARTICIPATION İN LABOR FORCE AND EMPLOYEMENT….

Marriage for women often create barrier in their participation in labor force. However that is balanced with education. If a woman is not married her participation in labor force is higher compare with married woman.

Female participation in labor force is affected with their domestic responsibilities. Caring children and elderly at home and home based / home axial activities are the major cause of female unemployment. As the duration of the compulsory primary education became longer we are expecting that would also increase female participation in labor force

Labor participation and employement

0

20

40

60

80

yüzd

e

Erkek 71,5 9,9 73,98

Kadın 24,9 10,3 26,02

işgücüne katılma oranı (%)

işsizlik oranı (%)istihdam edilme oranı

(%)

Kaynak: TÜİK, Türkiye İstatistik Yıllığı, 2006.

EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

Women are far behind the employment of men ,

especially due to her domestic Unemployment rates in women which were

already low in 1990 and 2000, after economic

crisis in 2001 increased to 10 % in general, and

17.9 in women and 11.3 in men.

Unemployed Ratio and unemploye - outside of agriculture (%)

(15+age)

 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

unemployement 6,5 8,4 10,3 10,5 10,3 10,3 9,9

Unemployement ratiooutside of agriculture 9,3 12,4 14,5 13,8 14,3 13,6 12,6

- Male 8,4 11,3 13,3 12,6 13,1 12,4 11,3

- Female 13,5 17,7 19,8 18,9 19,6 18,8 17,9

Kaynak: TÜİK, Hanehalkı İşgücü Anketi Sonuçları.

Kaynak: TÜİK Türkiye İstatistik Yıllığı, 2006.

Employment in informal sector is over 50 % in Turkey , however this is more common in agriculture and family work without payments in mainly rural parts of the country.

Among the people with social security registration the share of male is 82,8 % where female share is only 17,2 % for the year 2006.

Policies followed and activities carried out :

In The Beijing Platform for Action ;One of the 12 critical areas of concern is “women and the economy”

Turkey emphasized the issue in her 8th and 9th development plan where the young people and women is given priority as target population.

Projects: Many projects have been and still being carried

out to increase the female participation in labor force in Turkey by collaborated efforts of the national sectors and international organizations.

Policies followed and activities carried out continued…

The project on “Improvement of female participation in labor force” have been carried out by the GD of Status of Woman between the

years 1994–2000. Main objectives of the project to find out the possible

underlying factors of the reasons of the poor female unemployment and based on the findings to develop, formulate the best policies and solutions in the country to increase the women’s participations in every area of work as well as to offer women various working opportunities

Many of the policies which encourage women’s employment were generated from this project and being implemented now.

HEALTH

Since 1963 DHS type of surveys has been carried out in Turkey with 5 years intervals therefore we know the health statistics related to RH/Women's and Child health and FP quite accurately.

We can also assess the progresses and the shortcomings in health care of Turkey

HEALTH continued…….

Progresses in Women and Child Health and FP in Turkey:Maternal mortalities have been markedly decreased in Turkey by yearsMMR was 208 in 100 thousand LBs in 1974 which was decreased to 28.5 in 2005 according to the Nationwide MM Survey.

Maternal mortality ratios by years in Turkey (in 100 thousands live births)

28,5

208,0

132,0

100,0

49,270,0

0,0

50,0

100,0

150,0

200,0

250,0

1974 1981 1990 1998 2000 2006

Antenatal care increased significantly by years and

according to the latest DHS-2003 it 81% of all

pregnants are receiving ANC which was 63 % in 1993. Proportion of safe deliveries was 76% in 1993 which

is increased to 83 % in 2003 Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has been decreased by

years very markedly in Turkey. It used to be 4.3 in

1978 then was 3.0 in 1988 then in 1998 was 2.6 , in

the last DHS it was found as 2.2 per woman. This steady decrease indicate the correct family

planning policy and the management of the programs

implemented for a long time in Turkey

43

63 67,5

81,4

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1988 1993 1998 2003

Pregnants receiving antenatal care is increasing by years in

Turkey

76 76 80,6 83,3

0

20

40

60

80

100

1988 1993 1998 2003

Deliveries assisted by health personel is increasing by years in

Turkey

YILLARA GÖRE TOPLAM DOĞURGANLIK HIZI

4,3 4,1

3,4

2,72,6

2,2

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

1978 1983 1988 1993 1998 2003

Total Fertility Rates in Turkey by Years (1978-2003)

FP methods known by almost all married couples in Turkey. Contraceptive choices have been increased in the country by adding implants, injectables etc in the national programs where IUDs,The pills and condom and surgical sterilizations are provided.Counseling is given more importance in the FP services

50

61,463,4 62,6 63,9

71

3134,5

37,7

42,5

3234,2

28,125,5

28,5

18

27,2

32,3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1978 1983 1988 1993 1998 2003

Family Planning Practices in Turkey by Years 1978-2003

Kaynak: TNSA, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003.

Before 1983 induced abortion was permitted only on medical grounds, during that period self-induced abortions caused significant number of maternal deaths in Turkey

In 1983 induced abortion up to 10 weeks was legalized on request in Turkey

After its legalization there has been almost no deaths due to induced abortion in Turkey. Beside after 1990’s rate of induced abortions is decreasing very markedly

Still there is a considerable unmet needs in abortion services in Turkey, in order to meet that demand “medical abortion method” has been tried to be introduced in Turkey

Induced Abortions in Turkey by years 1983 - 2003

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1983 DHS 1988 DHS 1993 DHS 1998 DHS 2003 DHS

100 gebelik 100 kadın 100 canlı doğum

Infant Mortality Rates in Turkey by Yearsİn 1000 thousand live births

208

2935,236,838,352,6 4042,259,365,2

96

134

163168

33

0

50

100

150

200

250

1963 1968 1973 1978 1983 1988 1990 1993 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2003

thousand Marked decrease occured in IMR in Turkey and

from 208 in thousand to 29

Under 5 mortality decreased from 61 in thousand to 37.

A National Strategic Plan on RH has been prepare in Turkey which covers the period of 2000-2015.

According to the priorities of this strategic plan various programs and projects are being carried out in the country.

Since 2003 several EU supported projects have been carried out which aimed to improve the level of MCH in Turkey. Like “safe motherhood, emergency obstetric care,STIs,FP,In service trainings etc.”

Despite to the decrease in maternal mortalities, according to the NMM Survey 3 out of 5 maternal deaths were found to be preventable .

This finding indicates the inadequacy in health care and at the same time it indicates that if correct intervention programs are implemented those deaths could be prevented easily.

There are marked differences in utilization of RH care services in Turkey according to the regions and characteristics of the settlements being rural or urban

The major influential factor which cause those differences is the education level of the women another word is the status of women.

According to the further analysis of the nationwide studies; If the women are illiterate they have double numbers of children as they desire. If the women literate they have as many children as they want.

Illeterate women have more number of children than what they wanted to have

4.9

5.0

4.9

5.0

5.9

2.5

3.2

2.6

2.8

3.7Desired number of children

Number of children they have

2.5

2.6

2.6

2.8

3.0

2.2

2.5

2.2

2.4

2.8

Desired number of children

Number of children they have

Literate women are having the same number of children what they want

Similar trend is observed in FP practices

Another striking example in 3 consecutive DHS it was found that ; 99% of women is having safe deliveries if they have secondary education.

On the contrary women with no education only 1 out of 2 is having safe delivery. That means education level is a significant determining factor in utilization of the health care services in Turkey.

Based on the current realities in Turkey , In order to improve women’s health; in addition to empowerment of women and improving their status PHC approach should be adopted in the country and fundamental health care programs like safe motherhood should be provided

Utilization of obstetrics services by women according to their education (DHS – 1998-2003)

37,6

54,8

76,2

89,896 99,7

0

50

100

no

education

primary secondary

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

During last 10 years so many plans and programs have been made to prevent VAW in Turkey , most of them are revolutionary.

In this context;

Law on the protection of the family was accepted in 1998-# 4320 which introduced a very effective security system to protect individuals victimized by domestic violence .

Turkish criminal code # 5237 (TCK)

Established a research commission at the parliament in 2005 to investigate and specify the actions to prevent the custom and honor killings and underlying causes of violence against women and children

After the Report of the Parlimentary Research Comission, “prevention of the violence against women” became formal government policy in Turkey. Prime minister issued a statement on the subject on 4 th July 2006 which instructed the sectors about their responsibilities on VAW.

Some of the examples of the activities which are carried out

by the GD of SW A follow up committee was established to monitor the VAW

activities,

A protocol was signed with the security forces to train the

policemen for their role in preventing VAW and the related

procedures A protocol was signed with the Ministry of Health to train the

health care providers for their role in preventing VAW and the

related procedures

Combating Domestic Violence Against Women -National Action

Plan -2007-2010 Project on Combating Domestic Violence Against Women National Survey on VAW (2007)

The activities are carried out by other sectors; Project to establish Shelters in 8 province for the

women who are the victim of the domestic violence. (Currently there are 47shelters in Turkey)

Violence call line (Alo 183 Danışma Hattı) (SHÇEK ) In 2007 132.617 people benefited from the line.

Legal advise is provided by the body of lawyers free of charge

As seen from the above stated activities “Combating VAW” is the combined efforts of the governments with the other sectors which is led by the GD of SW and one of the major objectives of the activities to increase the public awareness level about VAW.

WOMEN IN POWER AND DECISION MAKING The main constitution of Turkey gives equal

opportunities to every one for all human rights irrespective to race, sex etc….

Turkey gave the legal rights to women to be elected and vote even before many countries in the world.

However despite to that fact women have not been adequately / equally represented at the decision levels due to various reasons

Members of the Parliment by Years in Turkey (1935-2007)Election year Total number Female

# # %

1935 395 18 4.6

1943 435 16 3.7

1946 455 9 2.0

1950 487 3 0.6

1977 450 4 0.9

1983 450 12 3.0

1987 450 6 1.3

2002 550 24 4.4

2007 550 50 9.1

Kaynak: http://www.tuik.gov.tr/VeriBilgi.do?tb_id=42&ust_id=12; 2007 seçim sonuçları için www.tbmm.gov.tr; KSGM, Türkiye’de Kadın 2001.

At the general election of 2002 there were only 24 female parliamentarians out of 550 which makes only 4.4% of the total.

That was even worse for the cabinet, as there was only ONE minister in the cabinet

At the general election of 2007 # of female parliamentarians increased to 50 which makes 9,1 %

There is again only ONE minister in the cabinet.

Representation of women at the local authorities is also important as as an initial step for entering the decision making mechanism. However representation of women at that level is also very limited

Only 18 out of 3225 ( 0.6%) mayors are women

Women in Local Authorities, 1994, 2004, Turkey

Total Female Female%in total

1999 election

Mayor 3215 18 0.56

Members of the municipality board

34084 541 1.59

Members of general provincial comission

3122 44 1.41

2004 election

Mayor 3225 18 0.56Members of the municipality

board34477 834 2.42

Members of general provincial comission

3208 58 1.81

Kaynak: İç İşleri Bakanlığı Mahalli İdareler Genel Müdürlüğü; KSGM, Türkiye’de Kadının Durumu.

At the Universities in Turkey: Proportion of the female

academicians are 39%, 27% of all professors are women

36% of all the engineers are female

29 % of all physicians are female and 33 % of the lawyers are female

Representation of women at the high level of bureaucracy is also not high .

There are only 21 female civilian authority - No governor

Number of the deputy of the governors is 5 out of 408 total, 16 out of 857 district governors are women , 6 out of 165 district governor candidates are female

Managers/administrators at the high level burochracy levels (Turkey, 2001)

Unvan female % male %

undersecretary 0 0 19 100

Deputy of undersecretary

3 4.3 66 95.7

Director 14 17.5 66 82.5

Deputy director 14 26.9 38 73.1

General director 12 6.0 188 94.0

Deputy general director

58 10.6 488 89.4

Kaynak: KSGM, Türkiye’de Kadın 2001.

Human Development Index and some gender indicators in some cuntries. (2007, 2008)

Gender Development Index – GDI (Rank of the Countries), 2007/2008

Gender Empowerment Measure – GEM** (Rank of the Countries), 2007/2008

Proportion of female parlimentarians (%), 2007/2008

Years that women was given rights to vote and be elected

Female active participation in economic activities (%), 2005

Countries Seçme Seçilme

Norway 3 1 37.9 1913 1907, 1913

63.3

Island 1 5 31.7 1915, 1920

1915, 1920

70.5

Sweden 5 2 47.3 1919, 1921

1919, 1921

58.7

Brazil 60 70 9.3 1932 1932 56.7

Turkey 79 90 9.1 1930, 1934

1930, 1934

27.7

Canada 4 10 24.3 1917, 1960

1920, 1960

60.5

Ethopia 149 72 21.4 1955 1955 70.8

Tanzania 138 44 30.4 1959 1959 85.8

Kaynak: Human Development Report, 2007/2008

CONCLUSSION

Gender equality legally is ensured and strengthened by the 10th item of the main constitution as well as other legislations in Turkey . However unless all those legal requirements are implemented in the real life the targeted gender equality cannot be reached.

Despite to considerable progresses and improvements in women’s issues, according to the results of the implementations there are still some distances to be covered in women issues in Turkey

Last ten years significant number of programs and projects related to women issues have been initiated and implemented in Turkey ,although some of their impacts can be seen through the indicators , however to see the real impacts of all those activities some period of time is needed.

Despite all the efforts to increase the coverage of education, still there are some gender inequalities in education therefore Turkey considers to give more importance to the improvements of status of women and their living standards , facilitate their adaptation to societal changes and also support their rights to access information and services.

Universal education will be ensured to every individuals with more emphasis on women .

Participations of women in labor force is one of the prerequisites of the development, therefore Turkey committed to continue her efforts to remove psycho social barriers in front of women to increase their active participations in labor force and live productive lives. In this context the legislations will be examined by a gender sensitive approach.

Although women were given rights to vote and elected in 1930s in the coming years they were not able to take place and be represented at the decision making levels sufficiently and more actively therefore in the future we will concentrate on intervention programs for removing obstacles in their participations in decision making mechanisms which will be mainly “empowerment of women”

Turkey will continue to carry out research on women issues to find out the real and current problematic areas in gender inequalities and develop intervention programs

In the field of “Health”; Continuous evaluation will be carried out to see the impact of gender discriminations on women’s health and develop necessary intervention programs

One of the major strategies followed by Turkey is to ensure the “Gender Mainstreaming” in the country (GEM)

Programs will be continued for; “empowerment of women” in every spheres of life. Protection of women’s rights Elimination of all forms of discriminations against

women Advocacy activities to increase the public

awareness on gender discrimination and its adverse outcomes

İntersectoral collaboration on women’s issues The role of the GD SW will continue as a

national mechanism to advocate and coordinate all national efforts on women issues.