The Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions (DISK) has called on women across Turkey to strike on March 8, International Women’s Day, to protest gender-based discrimination in all aspects of life, the Birgün daily reported.
At a meeting on Tuesday DİSK members issued a statement detailing the daily challenges women face, including unequal pay, gender-based violence and discrimination. They also emphasized that women in Turkey shoulder most caregiving responsibilities at home, yet this labor remains unrecognized as ‘work.'” To draw attention to these systemic problems, they called on their members and all women across the country to strike on March 8.
Chairwoman Arzu Çerkezoğlu said they would work tirelessly for gender equality. “Homemakers, healthcare workers, women in the private sector, in the culture industry and all other sectors face similar problems. Let’s just lay down whatever we’re doing for one day and demand equity,” she said.
Dr. Pınar Saip from the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) said many women in the labor force had the double burden of care-giving at home and their professional responsibilities. “There is the impression that women dominate the healthcare sector; however, this could not be further from the truth because some fields such as nursing or dermatology are seen as “female” fields, whereas other fields are completely dominated by male healthcare workers. There is very little accommodation for women who also have care-giving duties at home, doubling or tripling their daily burden.”
Academic Seyhan Erdoğdu said one of the biggest challenges women faced was the pay gap. “Men are nearly always more privileged when it comes to pay in comparison to their female peers. It should be government policy to ensure each workplace has regulations to ensure equal pay, and these regulations should be transparent and subject to audit.”
Erdoğdu added that the other biggest challenge was bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace, since cases were drastically underreported and perpetrators often not held accountable.
Women from various sectors who attended the meeting said it was difficult to voice negative experiences in the workplace. Joining a union or participating in a demonstration often meant risking losing their jobs or becoming vulnerable to bullying.
“When I joined – and later chaired – the actors union, I was unemployed for a decade,” said prominent actress Meltem Cumbul.
Previous reports have revealed women face many forms of discrimination in the labor force in Turkey. The gap between the number of men and women who participate in the workforce is one of the biggest among G20 countries and larger than in most developing economies. This gap is even wider in cities and among people with fewer skills, married women and mothers.
Additionally, women in Turkey are more likely than men to work in informal jobs — jobs without contracts, benefits or legal protections — and this gender gap is larger than in many other developing countries.
Women over 50 in particular were more likely to experience discrimination based on their age. While older men were regarded as “experienced,” women around the same age were regarded as “old” and incapable of doing the job.
This perception of older women has resulted in employers hiring larger numbers of men. Furthermore, women who were hired face workplace bullying and constant criticism for “underperforming.” These factors have led women to take jobs that do not match their skill set or that do not offer social security. Many women who took part in the study said they eventually gave up searching for a job.
According to the most recent report by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) women at all levels of education in Turkey have lower wages than their male counterparts, with the pay gap being the largest among university graduates.
The pay gap was 12.4 percent among people with an elementary school education or less; 12.8 percent among people with a secondary education; 16 percent among high school graduates; and 17.1 percent among people with an advanced degree.
