There has been an increasing number of literature on globalization and its effects on labour markets. With increasing global economic competition employment conditions have changed. Evidence shows that greater trade openness is associated with increase in women’s share of paid employment. In this paper, we concentrate on the aspects of trade on gender discrimination and particularly Turkey’s situation on this context. In the period of 1970-2005 there was substantial overall improvement in women’s quality of life, as reflected in social indicators. Women lived longer, had fewer children and more schooling. From the statistics, we can say that there is a moderate rise in women’s participation in the labour force. Usually, schooling, participation in politics and work and earnings can be used to measure women’s achievement in comparison with men’s. Focusing on Turkish economy, we know that in 24th January 1980 Turkey announced to follow a far reaching program of stabilization with structural change. The main objective of the program was to shift from an inward to an outward oriented development strategy. With an increase in trade, women transferred from the non productive housework economy to the productive economy. So, it is possible to say that trade create jobs for women but what about the gender gap? There is a quite number of literature for believing that the effect of globalisation may act to widen the gender pay gap. As long as women remain less qualified than men, they are likely to remain lower paying jobs, even if better-paying jobs become available through trade expansion.trade liberalization, gender gap, turkey

Özge Kama

English

Research Papers in Economics

Human Resources 
  26 
 
Human Resources 
 
Impact of Trade Liberalization on the Gender Gap in 
Turkey 
 
   Özge Kama 
  Yildiz Technical University 
 
There has been an increasing number of  literature on globalization and its effects on labour 
markets. With increasing global economic competition employment conditions have changed. 
Evidence shows that greater trade openness is associated with increase in women’s share of 
paid  employment.  In  this  paper,  we  concentrate  on  the  aspects  of  trade  on  gender 
discrimination and particularly Turkey’s situation on this context.  
In the period of 1970-2005 there was substantial overall improvement in women’s quality of 
life,  as  reflected  in  social  indicators.  Women  lived  longer,  had  fewer  children  and  more 
schooling.  From  the  statistics,  we  can  say  that  there  is  a  moderate  rise  in  women’s 
participation in the labour force. Usually, schooling, participation in politics and work and 
earnings can be used to measure women’s achievement in comparison with men’s.  
Focusing on Turkish economy, we know that in 24th January 1980 Turkey  announced to 
follow a far reaching program of stabilization with structural change. The main objective of 
the  program was to shift from an inward to an outward oriented development strategy. With 
an increase in trade, women transferred from the non productive housework economy to the 
productive economy. So, it is possible to say that trade create jobs for women but what about 
the  gender  gap?  There  is  a  quite  number  of  literature  for  believing  that  the  effect  of 
globalisation may act to widen the gender pay gap. As long as women remain less qualified 
than men, they are likely to remain lower paying jobs, even if better-paying jobs become 
available through trade expansion.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 International Conference on Human and Economic Resources, Izmir, 2006 
  27 
Introduction 
 
The concept of globalization cannot be explained without looking at women’s participation 
rates to the work force. There has been an increasing number of literature on globalization and its 
effects on labor markets. With increasing global economic competition, employment conditions 
have changed. Economic competition is became prominent with trade which is mostly seen as a 
deriving force of earning profits. Trade surely creates opportunities for both men and women but 
women mostly work at low skilled and low paying jobs. With the liberalization of trade, unskilled 
workers earn less in terms of relative wages while workers who were highly skilled gain.  
In  this  paper,  we  concentrate  on  the  aspects  of  trade  on  gender  discrimination  and 
particularly  Turkey’s  situation  in  this  context.  Conventional  wisdom  says  that  foreign  direct 
investments and trade openness brings jobs and exchange of knowledge, therefore prosperity and 
technologic progress. Prosperity may mean a better income for the family, and a better income may 
cause women to stay at home for child bearing and housework. However, this is not the case for 
most of the developed countries. Analyzing country reports, it is clearly seen that with an increase 
in  growth  rates  there  is  a  substantial  increase  in  women’s  participation  to  the  work  force 
(UNCTAD, 2004). So, the raise in wages had created an incentive for women to participate in paid 
work. 
Furthermore, a study by Gladwin and Thompson (1995) showed that there is a significant 
increase in women’s quality of life with raising incomes in developing regions. Economic freedom 
mostly brings a broader access to education, health services and political parties. All these result in 
a better quality in the living standards of women. We can relate this concept with Amartya Sen’s 
(1999) freedom perspective. As he suggests, economic unfreedom can breed social unfreedom, just 
as social or political unfreedom can also foster economic unfreedom. 
There  have  been  a  vast  number  of  debates  going  on  about  gender  issues  which  mostly 
started after World War II. After the War the number and percentage of women who work for pay 
have been increased. In contrast, men’s labor force participation rates have been declining. In 1950, 
86.4 percent of men aged 16 and over were in the labor force; by 2004, this ratio has dropped to 
66.3 (U.S Department of Labor Statistics, 2004). Statistics can be used as an evidence to show how 
women’s position in the labor market has improved in the last quarter of the century. Over the last 
three decades women have fewer children and much likely to return to work while their children are 
still young. 
Moreover, some differences between women and men are deeply rooted in culture and may 
last for decades. In particular, a major part of the difference is explained by personal choices to 
marry and have children. Existing literature have shown that the earnings of single men and single 
women with equivalent qualifications are similar. When we compare single men and married men, 
it is seen that married men earn more than single men but the reverse is not true since employers 
think that married women may give priority to their children at the expense of work. 
This  shows  the  asymmetrical  effects  of  the  institution  of  marriage  on  male  and  female 
incomes (Block, 1992). 
 
Turkish Economy 
 
The 24th January 1980 Decisions were a turning point in Turkish economy. Within these 
Decisions Turkey attained a more outward-oriented and market based economic system through 
exchange rate policy and export subsidies. Before the Decisions were implemented the government 
has had a leading role in the economy with intensive government inventions. During the 1970s, 
agriculture  maintained  its  dominance  but  it  is  also  a  time  of  exports  to  changed  in  favor  to 
manufacturing. The period beginning with the Decisions have caused a fundamental change of the 
composition  of  GDP  in  favor  of  industry.  During  the  period  of  1983-1987  export  revenues 
increased at annual rate of 10.8 percent, and gross domestic product rose at annual rate of 6.5 
percent (Boratav & Yeldan, 2001). Human Resources 
  28 
In 1989, the capital account was fully liberalized by the issuance of Decree No.32. With this 
Decree all residents are permitted to buy foreign exchange and foreign stock exchanges. The Decree 
is important for allowing non residents to establish a company, participate in a new or existing 
company,  to  make  investment  by  opening  a  branch  and  to  engage  in  all  activities  aiming  at 
production of all kind of goods and services. 
 
 
 
Between the years 1990-2004 there has been a similar increase in the life expectancy rates 
for  both  genders.  While  life  expectancy  is  extending  there  has  been  a  decrease  in  population 
growth.  Although  participation  levels  in  many  countries  have  increased,  among  the  OECD 
countries, Turkey has the lowest participation rates between the ages 15-64. One explanation might 
be the low wages that lead women prefer to stay out of labor force for child bearing and housework. 
On the other hand, The World Bank has another explanation for this situation, as a consequence of 
staying longer at school, Turkey has declining percentages in participation rates to the work force. 
Another reason why Turkey’s participation rates are lower can be explained by low public and 
private investment rates. Investment levels are so low that it becomes difficult for both genders to 
find job opportunities. This has a very big influence on females because of the traditional male 
breadwinner model. It’s appropriate to indicate that male breadwinner model is declining but the 
model has not disappeared (Warren, 2004). But the crisis of 1999 has caused unemployment rates 
for both genders to soar. 
The light manufacturing sector, of which the garment and textile industries are part, has 
been of vital importance in the development of Third World economies. Women mostly work in 
these sectors. Trade does not provide employment opportunities only in the goods sector but also in 
the services sector as it can clearly be seen from the Turkish data. 
Some sectors are more likely to absorb the female workforce. As shown in Table 2, the 
female labor force participation in wholesale and retail trade, restaurants, hotels have raised rapidly 
between the period of 1990 and 2000. Between these years a similar aspect can be seen in the social 
and personal services. Participation rates has been continually increasing but in the last decade there 
has been fluctuations resulting from the past crises. The latest crisis has sent down the growth rates 
to -7.4 in the beginning of 2001. 
Women typically provide their labor mostly to the low technology-based, labor intensive 
section of the garment industry in the developing countries. In 1970, manufacturing sector had an 
absolute advantage which can be seen from Table 2. Although Turkey’s liberalization process has 
started in 1980’s, manufacturing industry has lost its dominant role in the following years is another 
interesting point. There is no big gap is seen between the female and male participation rates as a International Conference on Human and Economic Resources, Izmir, 2006 
  29 
percentage in the manufacturing sector. Turkey can be seen as a semi-developed country. It has 
surely started a process of transformation towards services but agriculture still holds its magnitude. 
Women provide a large proportion of the labor force that goes into agriculture in the developing 
countries and in Turkey. Nearly 75 percent of all the female economic activity takes part in this 
sector. In the last three decades there has not been a big difference occurred on the employment 
status for females. Women are still seen as unpaid family workers. In the period of 1970 -2000 
women  can  not  be  seen  as  very  important  entrepreneurs.  Some  increases  occurred  but  female 
entrepreneurs formed only 0.89 percent of the female employment in 2000. 
 
 
 
Normally, young females living in rural areas have much less of an opportunity to receive a 
full primary education and this effect the incomes of  females.  Equal access to education is an 
important  step  towards  greater  gender  and  income  equality.  Many  studies  have  found  a  strong 
correlation between gender equality and economic growth (Dollar and Gatti, 1999). Causality is 
from economic growth to gender equality. As income grows, families are more willing to allocate 
resources to the education of girls. There is a clear difference on the female incomes according to 
level of education. Illiterate and low skilled women have a clear disadvantage in the labor market 
and this affects their incomes. Nearly 82 percentages of these two groups don’t have a regular 
income. With an increase in the education levels there has been a substantial increase in regular 
incomes. 
Over the 1990 to 2001 the illiteracy rate increased from 92.7 percent to 96.7 percent. The 
increase in the enrollment of education is caused by Government’s inventions to improve education. 
In 1997, the Government increased the duration of compulsory education from five to eight years. 
Ministry of National Education estimated the enrollment rates for primary education for the next 
five years and they are expecting a 100 percent enrollment. 
Examining  the  female  income  statistics,  there  are  obvious  distinctions  when  analyzed 
regionally. Marmara and Aegean regions have an advantage on the economic activity for the female 
incomes.  The  lowest  incomes  earned  by  the  females  are  in  the  Eastern  Anatolia  and  Southern 
Anatolia regions. This situation is not very diverse in the male employment. Turkey wants to be a 
member of the European Union and in order to reach this end, she is trying to maximize the national 
growth rates. Thus, some metropolitan cities are privileged in this sense, especially Istanbul. After 
the 1980s, there has been a devastating immigration to the metropolitan cities in search of non-farm 
employment.  In  line  with  these  immigrations  inequalities  among  the  geographical  regions  had Human Resources 
  30 
increased. As a result, women are taking more responsibility for the family properties in the rural 
areas. 
 
 
 
 
Now,  women  in  the  rural  areas  have  more  responsibilities  over  the  family  farms  but 
accessing  to  the  productive  resources  like  credits,  inputs  and  market  opportunities  still  creates 
barriers  for  them.  Their  productivity  is  constrained  and  they  have  difficulties  in  adopting  new 
technologies. The increase in their responsibilities may not be shared in controlling the revenues of 
the crops.  In a  globalized world farmers have  to compete with large scale food  companies for 
having a share in the domestic markets. With constraints facing the females, it is very difficult for International Conference on Human and Economic Resources, Izmir, 2006 
  31 
them to compete in the domestic markets, so they have changed their production patterns to meet 
their family’s basic food needs. 
Usually increases in the contributions of females to economic life bring more contributions 
to the legal system. Turkey has made considerable progress in achieving legal gender equality but 
political life is still organized by traditional norms. Traditional male breadwinning comes upon once 
again in the decision making. Since 1930s women has right to vote but they mostly have to vote for 
men candidates because of their low participation rates in the political arena. 
 
 
The governance system in Turkey has been centralised but there has been some progresses 
with the help of international institutions to break this chain. Since 1997 UNDP has been assisting a 
programme called Local Agenda 21. The main objective of the programme is to stregthen local 
governance by ensuring that civil society participates in decision making. Programme promotes the 
role of women in strengthening democratic local governance in Turkey  through  a participatory 
process built around transparency and accountability. 
The statistics shown in the Table 5 indicates that some progress has to be done to break this 
male  dominated  atmosphere.  This  concept  is  also  crucial  for  the  European  Union.  Non-
discrimination and gender equality are among the fundamental values on which the European Union 
is based. They are also a part of the Copenhagen political criteria, which have to be met by all 
candidate countries as well as Turkey. 
 
Conclusion 
 
Globalization has many effects on the labor markets and especially on female labor force. 
With  increasing  global  economic  competition,  employment  conditions  have  changed.  Evidence 
shows that greater trade openness is associated with increase in women’s share of paid employment. 
In this sense, Turkey’s transformation process is analyzed and found that with an increase in trade 
and more access to the economic markets, quality of life has increased especially for women in the 
country. 
 
 
 Human Resources 
  32 
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