unionism, the low union membership rate among
women workers, as well as their restricted repre-
sentation among the administrative cadres, are
mainly attributable to the pre-eminence of tradi-
tional values in Turkish society. While women have
access to the public sphere as citizens equal with
men in modern Turkey, the private sphere is still
held to be the appropriate place for women, since
their roles as mothers and wives are prioritized by
the prevailing patriarchal mentality. This has
strong implications for the marginalization of
women in the labor market, which reinforces labor
union discrimination against women, and hence
reproduces the gendered ideology in the labor mar-
ket. The female labor force participation rate, 24.3
percent of the total female population above the
age of twelve, as well as the dominance of unpaid
family labor as the major type of female economic
participation, 51.9 percent of the total female labor
force, are crucial factors in explaining the exclusion
of a large proportion of women from union mem-
bership in Turkey. Moreover, urban women work-
ing in the marginal service sector, such as cleaning
on a daily or monthly pay basis, women engaged in
home production, and most of the women working
in small-size enterprises are deprived of both social
security rights and union membership.
Even though the low unionization rate among
women workers partly highlights their limited rep-
resentation in the union decision-making process,
as well as the low rate of participation in union
activities, the correlation between numbers and
influence is mostly misleading. In fact, women’s
secondary status within the unions continues to be
the case where the female membership is relatively
high. This is essentially related to the reflection of
sexual division of labor at the organizational level,
as has been the case in most of the other political
and economic organizations in Turkey. Women
workers’ passive stance in the unions is largely
linked with the double burden caused by the sepa-
rate roles that they have to perform at home and at
work. Women workers generally do not have the
opportunity to engage in any other activity, even if
they would prefer to do so. In addition, the deep-
rooted preconception concerning the masculinity
of politics at large has its negative repercussions on
the socialization of women members in unions.
Within the context of the traditional distinction
between women’s and men’s jobs, most women
turkey 671either are habitually apathetic or do not perceive
themselves as potential decision-makers or as being
capable of undertaking union activities. The lack of
sufficient information concerning the functions
of labor unions further aggravates the alienation of
women within the unions. Most women perceive
unions as organizations solely responsible for
defending their economic interests and thus their
expectations from the unions are very limited.
Besides the scarcity of educational facilities, this
perception is highly related to the profile of union-
ism in Turkey, which is largely confined to the col-
lective bargaining process. Women who do have
labor union consciousness remain aloof to the
unions when faced with their indifferent stance
toward their special needs and demands, such as
childcare support, reduction of working hours, and
improvement of working conditions.
The post-1980 period has seen the advancement
of certain policies for the encouragement of
women’s participation at all levels and the manage-
ment of women-specific problems. The establish-
ment of the Bureau of Women Workers under the
Confederation of Trade Unions of Turkey in 1982
with the support of the International Confedera-
tion of Free Trade Unions represents a significant
step in this respect. Similar initiatives followed,
accompanying the rise of the feminist movement.
The steps taken so far are nevertheless far from
effective in undermining male domination. Today,
the number of unions that have acknowledged the
significance of the Woman Question still remains
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