Tackling Low Female Labour Force Participation in Turkey: Continuity and Change in the Social Policy Environment with the EU Membership Process

Abstract

Low participation of women in the labour market is a key factor in understanding the main characteristics and recent changes of the gender and care regime in Turkey. This article examines how the low-level of female participation in the labour market has been framed in recent policy reforms in Turkey, and considers the role played by the EU membership process. The article demonstrates that, in several instances, the government has legitimated reform measures with the goal of attaining EU membership. In certain specific reforms, bureaucratic actors have strategically used the EU membership process in order to set the reform agenda. The article also demonstrates that available EU resources increased between 2002 and 2009 with the launch of accession negotiations, a period coinciding with the introduction of reforms concerning the social security system and the labour market. The analysis underlines the use of political and financial resources by political entrepreneurs – such as NGOs for women, the Secretariat General for EU affairs, and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security – with reference to European norms and processes.