ABSTRACT
Due to the economic crises of the 1970s, the advancement of market technologies, and the transformation in the production modes, the rise of neoliberal ideas at the political and economic level brings along the development of new types of employment models based on the idea of flexibility in employment, market, and production all around the world. Part-time employment has been introduced to solve the unemployment problem, respond to the changing demands of labour market/new type of production relations, and to eliminate work–family conflict. Turkey is also one of the counties that provides a legal and economic basis for the implementation of part-time employment. The new legal regulation on part-time employment, targeting particularly female workers, came into force in 2016. Although it is presented as an affirmative action policy, which aims to eliminate gender inequality with the reconciliation of work and family responsibilities and increase the employment rates of women, the consequences of this regulation on women employment are controversial. Thus, the contention of this chapter is that the implementation of part-time employment in Turkey offers a solution to neither women’s unemployment problem nor gender inequality in the labour market. It rather strengthens the persisting gender bias in economic life and sharpens the poor working conditions of employees in general, and women, in particular in the labour market. In that vein, it inevitably deepens not only the insecure, unprotected, and poorly paid employment but also the women’s subordination in the labour market in Turkey.
