This research examines the domestic division of labour patterns in Turkey by comparing the Family Structure Survey (FSS) of 2006 and 2016 conducted by Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), and investigates the persistently gendered share of household- and family-related responsibilities. The aim is to discuss how women’s and men’s share of housework and childcare are structured in relation to traditional gender roles, and whether/to what extend a decade has altered these dynamics in Turkey. The imbalance in the domestic division of labour patterns is among the most obvious barriers to Turkish women’s employment trajectories even for women with higher educational qualifications, 31.6% of highly educated women who are not in the labour force stating their reason not to work as household responsibilities by 2016 (Household Labour Force Survey, 2016, TurkStat). Women do not only engage in the majority of domestic chores: more significantly, they are responsible for the regular and timeconsuming tasks (such as cooking, ironing, laundry etc.) while housework undertaken infrequently (as in minor reparations, painting the house etc.) is mostly shared by men and means of paid support. Preliminary findings of FSS (2016) released by Turkish Statistical Institute refer to the continuation of a gendered share of housework: for instance, cooking is still a heavily female-dominated chore (undertaken by women with 91.2%, while the rate remains at 8.8% for men), as e.g. ‘painting the house’ chore is done by men with 80.4% (and 19.6% by women). Also, issues surrounding household responsibilities are the most prevailing source of conflict among spouses by 2016 with a rate of 5.9% (FSS, 2016, TurkStat).
The main caretaker of children aged 0-5 has been mothers both in 2006 (with 92.1%) and 2016 (with 86%) as revealed by the FSS. This is not a surprising fact; however, it is highly concerning that fathers are nearly absent from childcare responsibilities (day care is undertaken by fathers with 0.5% in 2006 but they are not present in the picture in 2016), and paid support is still unfavorable (total daycare/kindergarten preference increased from 0.9% to only 2.8% in a decade), thus maternal employment in Turkey continues to be the lowest among OECD countries (OECD, 2016). There is a minor decrease in mother’s role as the main caretaker of the child/ren during the day by 2016, yet the shift occurs mainly towards grandmothers. The existing context firstly highlights the need of intrusive social policies regarding men’s participation in household responsibilities to achieve a more egalitarian share of unpaid work, particularly in childcare, as in the example of successful policy implementations in Sweden for supporting the dual-earner family model starting from late 1960s and early 1970s which have been reinforcing men’s involvement in the private sphere primarily as fathers (Lewis, 1992), who later became role models for their sons to be caring fathers (Chronholm, 2007). A good practice example is the reserved parental leave of one month for each parent introduced in 1995 to which an additional month was added in 2002 which are “use-or-lose daddy months” for men in Sweden (Duvander and Jans, 2008). In addition to corresponding social policy regulations, increased educational attainment to improve women’s and men’s perception of fairness in domestic division of labour, educational programs provided by especially NGOs for enhancing awareness in society in terms of men’s engagement in family-related responsibilities, a more egalitarian political discourse regarding women’s and men’s status in the private and public spheres, and an equal portrayal of women and men throughout all segments of media are key factors that are necessary in the way towards a fair share of unpaid domestic work that is subsequently very much related to rising female employment rates.
There is also a comparative aspect of this research. Turkish women’s employment rates are largely shaped by a combination of cultural notions attached to women’s roles in the family by default and the insisting lack of external support including systematically monitored on-site day care at work, child sick leave and adequate family benefits. However, these problems concerning women’s status at work and at home are not exclusive to the Turkish context. Comparisons to different countries in terms of women’s status in the labour market derived from OECD sources and the international literature refer to the resemblance (despite the context-specific differences) of Turkey to Italy and Greece in relation to the welfare regulations (Mediterranean welfare regime) that considers family (hence women) as the main social security provider; to Korea and Japan via the traditional family structure in which women are attributed the role of being the main homemaker even when they are highly educated and thus the similarly imbalanced domestic division of labour; to Mexico and Chile due to the prescribed gender roles and women’s work being seen as secondary; and to Egypt and Morocco in relation to the overall traditional social structure and women’s status in the family.