Official figures show gender inequality in Turkey’s labor force

ANKARA

The employment rate of women remained less than half of the employment rate of men in 2017 in Turkey, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on March 6.

In its “Women in Statistics 2018” report, TÜİK said the rate of employment among women above the age of 15 was 28.9 percent while it was 65.6 percent for men.

The education level of women was directly proportionate to their labor force participation rate, which was 15.9 percent for illiterate women, 27.7 percent for those whose education level was under secondary school level, 34.3 percent for women who graduated from high school, 42.6 percent for women who graduated from vocational high school, and 72.7 percent for women who graduated from a university.

However, the proportion of women in executive positions in companies was 17.3 percent in 2017, the report added. This figure was recorded as 14.4 percent in 2012.

It found that the service industry had the highest rate of women employment, with 56.1 percent of women working in the sector.

Proportion of female professors 31.2 percent

The proportion of women working as professors, associate professors, and lecturers in the education year of 2017/2018 was 31.2 percent, 38.8 percent, and 50.2 percent respectively.

The report also cited the data of the Foreign Ministry, saying that while the proportion of female ambassadors was 10.8 percent in 2009, this proportion was 22.1 percent in 2018.

According to the results of life satisfaction survey, in 2018, the proportion of those who were employed as waged, salaried, casual getting trouble of one or two hours of leave for dealing with personal or family related matters in working hours was 9.2 percent while this proportion and 10.3 percent for females and 8.8 percent for males.

Mean age at first marriage for women 24.8

The report also included the average age at first marriage among women and men.

The average age at first marriage became 24.8 for women while it was 27.8 for men in 2018, the report said.

The province with the highest mean age at first marriage was the eastern province of Tunceli with 27.6 for females and 30.8 for males.

The province with the lowest mean age at first marriage was the eastern province of Ağrı with 21.9 for females and were the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa and the western province of Afyonkarahisar with 25.9 for males.

The report also included statistics for the cause of death of women in Turkey in 2017.

The figures showed the most common cause of death among women was circulatory system diseases (with 43.7 percent), which was followed by tumors (15.1 percent) and respiratory system diseases (with 11.2 percent). When the causes of death cases were examined by sex, it was observed that there was no significant difference between male and females, the report said.

According to life satisfaction survey results, the proportion of individuals who declared themselves as happy was 53.4 percent in 2018. While the level of happiness 57 percent for females, it was 49.6 percent for males.

It was seen that 56.3 percent of married individuals and 46.7 percent of non-married individuals were happy. While 60.7 percent of married females and 51.6 percent of married males declared that they were happy, 47.9 percent of non-married females and 45.5 percent of non-married males declared that they were happy.