DETERMINANTS of FEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION in TURKEY: Who Cares Determines Who participates an

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DETERMINANTS of FEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION
in TURKEY Who Cares Determines Who
participates and Who does not

• Ipek Ilkkaracan and Sevil Acar
• Istanbul Technical University
• and
• Women for Womens Human Rights (WWHR),
• Turkey

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Aim of the study

• To identify the factors leading to womens low
  rates of labor force participation in Turkey
  based on the findings of the 1988 and 2005
  Household Labor Force Surveys and qualitative
  data available from field research.
• To evaluate the variations in the determinants of
  female labor force participation by marital
  status, rural vs. urban location, level of
  education
• To evaluate the variations in these determinants
  through time (in the period of analysis from 1988
  to 2005).

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Gender Characteristics of the Turkish Labor Market

• According to HLFS, in Turkey (in 2006)
• _________________________Female Male____
• LFP rate 24.9 71.5
• Employment rate 22.3 64.5
• Unpaid family wrks
• U rate
• Discouraged wrks
• Underemployment rate
• Part-time Employment
• The EU average female employment rate in 2004 is
  55,7 and the target rate set by Lisbon criteria
  is 60 in 2010.
  
• According to UN statistics 2006, Turkey has the
  10th lowest female economic activity rate among
  130 countries (and 13th lowest female share of
  adult employment).
• According to ILO Global Employment Trends Brief
  2007, womens average LFPR in 2006
  
• Middle East and North Africa 29,5
• Latin America and the Caribbean 52,4
• South Asia 36,0

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Economic activity rates by year, Turkey ()
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LFP rates by year, Turkey ()
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Commonly Argued Factors Leading to the Declining
Trend

• Migration from rural to urban U-shaped pattern
  of female LFP through the course of
  industrialization
  
• Low Education Levels of Women
• argument echoes throughout numerous Policy
  Documents
  
• World Bank Report, 1994
• European Parliament resolution on women's role in
  social, economic and political life in Turkey,
  2005 and 2006
  
• Confederation of Turkish Employers Unions
  Report, 2006
  
• and in Published research papers in economics
• Dayioglu and Kasnakoglu (1997) Tunali (1997)
  Dayioglu (2000) Tansel (2002) Ince and Demir
  (2006).
  

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Can lower education levels of women explain
low levels of participation?
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Findings of an Action-Research Study, Istanbul,
1997Women for Womens Human Rights

• Reasons for women leaving last job ()
• Family reasons 53.1
• Marriage/engagement/childbirth 35.2
• Husband/family wanted 12.6
• Caring for children or sick family member 5.3
• Reasons for non-participation for women who have
  no past LF experience ()
  
• Family members did not grant permission 35.8
• My husband did not allow it 25.0
• Other family members did not allow it 10.8
• Needed to care for house/children 24.9
• Reasons for family members preventing women from
  participating ()
  
• Work is inappropriate to women 66.4
• The family has sufficient income 18.5
• There is none else to care for house 15.1
• and/or children

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Findings of an Action-Research Study, Istanbul,
1997Women for Womens Human Rights

• Do the women prefer to work for pay? ()
• All women LF Participant
  women Non-participant women
  
• Yes, I prefer 67.2 68.9 66.6
• Because
• Economic freedom/own income 37.4 41.1 36.4
• To help with the family budget 31.8 5.0 39.9
• For own satisfaction 27.9 51.5 20.7
• Social Security 2.3 2.4 2.2
• Other 0.6 --- 0.8
• Total 100 100 100
• No, I do not prefer 32.8 31.1 33.4
• Because
• I want to continue my education 24.1 --- 30.4
• I do not like working for pay 21.6 41.3 16.5
• Housework and childcare 18.5 18.4 18.4
• Feels too tired or old 12.3 --- 15.6

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Findings of an Action-Research Study, Istanbul,
1997Women for Womens Human Rights

• If you had the choice, where would you like to
  work for pay, at home or outside? ()
  
• All Women Women w/ Children
  Single/Widowed/Divorced
  
• I dont 14.4 15.1 11.7
• want to work
• At home 28.7 36.8
  17.1
  
• Outside 56.9 48.1
  71.2
  
• TOTAL 100 100 100

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An alternative account from a gender perspective

• Sexual division of labor in the family and
  society
  
• Gender roles in the family and society
• Ilkkaracan (1997) Ozar and Senesen (1998)
• Eyuboglu, Ozar and Tufan-Tanriover (1998)

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Theoretical Framework

• Neoclassical Model
• Assumption utility maximizing free choice
• determinants of Labor Supply
• Wage rate
• Non-wage income
• Preferences
• Womens low participation explained by lower
  wages (due to lower human capital) availability
  of husbands income preferences in favor of
  unpaid work.
• Feminist critique assumption of free choice
  unfounded
  
• Sexual division of labor and imposed/internalized
  gender roles are determining.
  
• Marxist-Feminist Model
• Interface of patriarchy and capitalism determine
  the dynamics of female labor force participation
  depending on the particular historical and local
  conjecture. The demand-side pull of labor market
  and the supply-side push of household livelihood
  supply-side push of household livelihood shape
  participation patterns.

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International Findings Care as a source of the
Gender Employment Gap

• presence of small children or old relatives in
  the household and household income
  
• Lazaro, Molto and Sanchez (1995), Chiuri (2000),
  Viitanen (2005), Wakabayashi and Donato (2005)
  
• availability of child care
• Chevalier and Viitanen (2002), Himmelweit and
  Sigala (2002), Lokshin (1999), Lokshin and Fong
  (2006), Lokshin, Glinskaya and Garcia (2004)
  Lokshin, Glinskaya and Garcia (2004)
• husbands attitudes
• Chuang and Lee (2003)
• structural adjustment processes
• Cagatay and Ozler (1995), Neitzert (1997), Lee
  and Cho (2005)

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Using the HHLFS Data

• Data Household Labor Force Surveys country-wide
• 1988 HHLFS 11,160 households
• 2005 HHLFS 37,560 households
• Methodology
• descriptive analysis of reasons for non
  participation
  
• logit regression analysis for women versus men
  and for women of different categories by
  rural-urban status, education level, marital
  status, and for different years including the
  following variables

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Summary Statistics Related to Labor Force ()
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2005 HHLFS Reasons for non-participation

• Labor force experience rate
• 1988 53.3 2005 42.0
• Question in the HHLFS
• What is the reason for why you have not looked
  for a job in the past 3 months? ()
  
• previous participants
  never-participants
  
• W M W M
• Busy with housework
• Caring for children
• and/or needy adults at home
• Total 55 1.5 79.1 5.4
• Why is it that you care for children and/or needy
  adults at home yourself? () 2006 HHLFS
  
• Because such care is expensive 29.3
• I do not trust the quality of care services
  4.7
  
• There are no places in vicinity that offer these
  services 0.7
  
• Personal preference 64.7
• Other 0.7
• Total 100

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LOGIT ANALYSIS

• A bivariate logit model is used in order to see
  the effects of
  
• marital status (-)ly if living with a partner
• presence of children below the age of 12 (-)ly
• whether non-LF participant adult woman is present
  in the hh ()ly if present
  
• whether the woman is hh head or not ()ly if hh
  head
  
• hh size ()ly for livelihood (-)ly for household
  care
  
• education level ()ly at higher levels of
  education
  
• age (M-shape?)
• monthly hh earnings excluding womans earnings
  (-)ly
  
• no. of employed persons in the hh excluding the
  woman herself (-)ly
  
• education level of the hh head ()ly at higher
  education levels
  
• region of residence () or (-) depending on
  combination of job market opportunities versus
  cultural factors
  
• urban vs. rural location of residence (-)ly for
  urban
  

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LOGISTIC REGRESSION RESULTS FOR 2005 HLFS DATA
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Institutional FrameworkPreschool Enrollment
rates for Turkey
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Legal, Institutional and Policy Framework

• Labor Law
• Grants Maternity leave 16 weeks Paternity
  leave none
  
• No legal mechanisms to support compatribility of
  care work and paid work
  
• Labor law requires that a nursing room and a
  daycare center shall be established at the
  workplace if there are more than 150 women
  workers employed but no enforcement of the law.
  Taking no of female workers as the reference for
  the need for a day care center, is indicative of
  the philosophy of the law considering childcare
  to be solely womens responsibility.
• In practice, the law promotes discrimination in
  hiring to remain under the limit of 150 female
  workers.
  
• No legal mechanisms to support womens reentry
  into the labor force after child rearing
  
• of part-time employment in total employment 5
  in 2005 (the lowest among 21 countries, ILO
  Report 2007)
  
• Civil Code clause on womens right to work until
  the reform of 2003, lack of husbands permission
  was a legally recognized basis for prevention of
  married womens participation in paid work
• Policies/programs to promote womens employment
  no national program, policy or plan of action
  existing programs are ad hoc, primarily
  emphasizing womens occupational training or
  small entreprenuership.
• Occupational training or entreprenuersip support
  programs for women report low rates of success.
  
• Yet more comprehensive gender awareness-raising
  trainings provide much more solid outcomes for
  promoting womens enttry into paid work. eg. The
  Human Rights Training Program for Women
  (implemented by Women for Womens Human Rights in
  cooperation with Community Centers around the
  country) one third of all participants enter
  paid work upon completion of this training.

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Conclusions

• Sexual division of labor in the household and
  gender roles are the major determinants of female
  labor force participation in Turkey acting as
  substantial constraints.
• Yet household livelihood act as a pushing factor
  for labor force participation in the lower income
  strata.
  
• These constraints vary by rural vs. urban
  location, education group, marital status.
  
• There seems to be a relative easing of the
  constraints through time possibly through
  relative improvements in childcare facilities and
  transformation of gender roles.
• Policies to promote female LFP need to emphasize
  
  
• the improvement of the legal and institutional
  framework towards compatibility of care work and
  paid work eg. paternal leave act, opening of
  subsidized day care centers mechanisms for
  reenrty into the labor force
• Widespread awareness raising programs for
  transformation of gender roles towards more equal
  division of responsibility for care work between
  men and women and for improved awareness of
  women of their rights to participate equally in
  both public and private spheres.