Public investments in social care contribute to women’s employment
Findings from the survey report “Effects of Public Investment in Social Care Services on Employment, Gender Equality and Poverty: Case of Turkey” prepared with the support of International Labour Organization (ILO) were released during a meeting held at the ILO Ankara Office on Friday, 29 April 2016.
Findings from the survey report “Effects of Public Investment in Social Care Services on Employment, Gender Equality and Poverty: Case of Turkey” prepared with the support of International Labour Organization (ILO) were released during a meeting held at the ILO Ankara Office on Friday, 29 April 2016.
Conducted on the basis of women’s low rate of participation to labour force in Turkey, the study finds that public investments in social care services create employment opportunities for all including women in particular and contribute to gender equality.
Speaking at the meeting, Numan Özcan, Director of the ILO Office for Turkey, reminded that time and labour women spent for caring children, ill and elderly in families exceeds what males do in the same field and said, “Hence, it becomes apparent once more that it is necessary and important to engage in public investments and develop public policies for quality and accessible social care to reduce this burden on women.”
“One of the most significant findings of the study is that shortage of quality and accessible social services in Turkey seriously limits the supply of female labour and this is one of the major factors weakening women’s engagement with labour markets.”
Head of the survey team from the İstanbul Technical University, Prof İlkkaracan shared the findings of the survey during the meeting and said an additional resource allocation of 20.7 billion TL to child care centres and preschools education would bring along new employment opportunities, in addition to its short-term economic returns, and reduce unemployment while increasing participation to labour force.
According to the study, investment of this amount can create employment opportunities for about 400,000 housewives many of whom had to withdraw from labour force after getting married.
Reminding that women’s labour force participation remains lower than in other countries, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Economic Policy Adviser Prof Nilüfer Çağatay said, "Looking at women’s and men’s participation to labour force throughout the world we see that 53% of all paid and unpaid work is done by women; the figure is 55% in Turkey.”
According to estimations, an investment of this amount in early childhood care and preschool education can create employment 2.5 times larger than an equal amount of investment in construction sector. According to the study, spending in early childhood care and preschool education will create 719.000 new employment opportunities while it remains 290.000 in construction sector.
Also speaking at the meeting, Matilda Dimovski, Deputy Resident Representative of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) underlined that the existing low rate of women’s labour force participation derives from socioeconomic conditions.
“The report has three important observations. The first is that absence of social care services pushes down women’s labour force participation. Secondly, it is possible to create decent work by ensuring more effective public investments in social care. And the third, it is utterly important to increase public investments in social care if women’s labour force participation is to be increased.”
The research conducted jointly by İstanbul Technical University and Levy Economics Institute was supported by the ILO Office for Turkey under its project “More and Better Jobs for Women”, UNDP and UN Women.
