Economic Cycles and Gendered Employment Patterns in Turkey

Since financial liberalization in 1989, Turkey has been through three financial crises (1994, 1999 and 2001) and a significant economic contraction, in 1991. The crisis-prone structure together with a high and persistent unemployment problem contributes to the strikingly low female labor force participation and employment. The complex nature of women’s participation in economic activity complicates the assessment of the gendered effects of economic crises in the labor market, yet various arguments reflecting various possibilities can be theorized under three main hypotheses ¹ : (1) the segmentation hypothesis argues that there is a rigid sex-typing of occupations, and hence it is the changes in the composition of output that bring about changes in the gender composition of labor; (2) the buffer hypothesis implies that gender-specific characteristics of women’s economic participation make women more disposable in times of crises; and (3) the substitution hypothesis suggests that the need for cost-saving strategies leads to more intensive use of female labor in both traditionally female and male industries.