Structural characteristics of labor market and issue of women’s labor force participation in Turkey

Despite having an important role in the economy, female employment and labor force participation rates of women are distinctly lower in Turkey. This article analyses the reasons behind the lower labor force participation of women in Turkey and compares it with different countries. In this study, apart from consulting the relevant literature, a large number of statistical data also has been collected from ILO, OECD, EU and TUIK(Turkish Statistical Institute). The research results reveals that, in addition to economic factors, socio-cultural factors particularly related to women’s role splits over as worker in social life and as the main responsible person in housework build up an important problem scope for women in terms of female labor force participation rates in Turkey. For this reason, it is concluded that, applying employment policies which consider the nature of socio-cultural peculiarities of female labor force will help the employability of women and increase female labor force participation rate.