Gender gaps in employment from a decent work perspective in Turkey

Abstract

Transformations mostly in the form of deregulation in labor markets in the global scale resulted in highly insecure labor markets and deterioration of working conditions in the last four decades. The disappointing outcomes of orthodox liberal policies in terms of employment generation and increasing poverty even among the employed led to growing attention on the quality of employment and decent work. Despite this growing interest in decent work in the global scale, there are limited number of studies on developing countries and Turkish labor market in particular. Besides, decent work analysis can be enhanced by introducing gendered dimensions into the analysis; yet, gender is an analytical category, which is not addressed sufficiently in the already flourishing decent work agenda and research. In this context, this chapter aims to contribute to the existing literature by focusing on the Turkish manufacturing sector and to unfold gendered characteristics of decent job conditions in manufacturing industry sub-sectors in Turkey. Using individual level data (panel data of Household Labor Force Survey (HLFS) Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT), 2012) and 24 manufacturing sectors, decent work dimensions ofjob quality are assessed. Through seven dimensions of job quality and more than 15 indicators, not only similarities and differences over the manufacturing industry but also reflections in terms of gender are highlighted. The study shows that besides gender disparities in employment and labor force participation rates, women in manufacturing sectors face significant gender gaps in terms of decent work. © Peter Lang AG 2019.