Turkey, sometimes called the most eastern of the West, the most western of the East, is fiercely struggling to prevent all forms of violence against women through the support of its intelligentsia, press and political leaders. But interestingly, Turkey also stands out as a country providing equal pay to men and women holding the same jobs. However, Turkey sadly fails in encouraging women into workforce, which ranks us behind the OECD average.
Despite the fact that the gender equality in the workplace and the principle of equal pay for male and female workers for equal work are protected by law, a major source of pride in Turkey indeed; as Turkish people, we are sometimes appalled by bias and discrimination still surfacing from time to time. For instance, Turkey ranked second in the world for answering mostly “yes” to the following survey question: “When the woman earns more than the man, would this negatively affect the family?” It’s also interesting to see that Latin America and Middle-Eastern countries are ranked among the top then.
Altınbas University has more female employees than male. Unfortunately, the same does not go for all organisations in Turkey. Even in Istanbul, a large modern city where Muslims, Christians and Jewish people have coexisted for thousands of years and continue to coexist peacefully, still, there are women unwilling to work outside the home, and men unwilling to let their wives out to work. I wish I could not say this situation varies according to income and education level, religious beliefs or ethnic/cultural traits. It seems like women prefer to dominate "home" rather than dominating in business or politics.