Allocation of public resources towards an expansion of early childhood care and preschool education (ECCPE) service sector contributes to the creation of new jobs for all especially for women and promotes gender equality, according to a new report.
The research report simulates the impact of an additional 20.7 billion TRY expenditure on child-care centers and preschools – the estimated amount in order for Turkey to catch up with the average OECD preschool enrollment rate – on new employment opportunities as well as on gender equality, income generation and poverty.
The study “The Impact of Public Investment in Social Care Services on Employment, Gender Equality and Poverty: The Turkish Case” was prepared by Istanbul Technical University Women’s Studies Center and the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, with the partnership of the ILO, UNDP, and UN Women.
Released on 18 September 2015 in Istanbul, the report states despite the male dominance in the labor market, women benefit the most from such a possible investment. Women take up 73 percent of the new jobs from the ECCPE investment, while only 6 percent goes to women in the case of construction.
The investment creates employment opportunities to almost 400,000 homemakers, many of whom had to quit their jobs after marriage. Their re-entry into the workforce will empower them with gainful employment and contribute to household income to get their family out of poverty, according to the study.
It is shown that an expenditure of this magnitude in early childhood care and preschool education (ECCPE) would create 2.5 times more jobs in ECCPE and indirectly in other sectors than the number of jobs likely to be created with the same amount of investment in the construction sector. 719 thousand new jobs are created via expenditures on ECCPE versus 290,000 new jobs via construction.
Beyond creating more jobs in total, more jobs for women and the unemployed, the study finds that an ECCPE expansion also creates more decent jobs than a construction boom.
In her opening speech Özge Berber Agtaş of ILO stated, “The survey results clearly reveal the economic logic of investing in the social care sector. For us, this research also illustrates the importance of implementation of the ILO Convention No. 156 Workers with Family Responsibilities, which has not yet been signed by Turkey. The convention No. 156 defines and assures equal work conditions and equal opportunities for both female and male workers with family responsibilities.”
The research has also revealed that the lack of high-quality, accessible social care services places significant constraints on female labor supply in Turkey, and is among the key factors that weaken women’s labor market attachment.
The report’s findings have implications far beyond Turkey according to its authors, İpek İlkkaracan, Kijong Kim and Tolga Kaya. “We believe that beyond the Turkish context, the results of this study carry implications for policy debates also in other countries of the region, where a social care infrastructure is lacking and there is ample space for expansion of early child care and pre-school education and other social care service subsectors.”
