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Home Journals The Social Sciences Volume 5 Issue 2, 2010 Fulltext HTML
The Social Sciences
Year: 2010 | Volume: 5 | Issue: 2 | Page No.: 164-171
DOI: 10.3923/sscience.2010.164.171  
Discrimination Between Men and Women in the Working Life in Turkey and Regulations about Positive Discrimination
Bunyamin Bacak
 
Abstract: There are many individuals coming from different segments and groups among the individuals of the society. Since the interests of these individuals conflict with each other, there is an ongoing competition among them. Therefore, due to their diversities, individuals’ exposure to negative treatment and behaviors in economic, social or political areas leads to discrimination. In spite of the existence of several types of discrimination (ethnicity and race-based, religion and faith-based, age-based, sexual orientation-based, etc.), gender-based discrimination leading to abuse in working life in Turkey and the regulations related to positive discrimination stated in the labor and social security legislation will be handled in this study.
 
 
INTRODUCTION

The role of women in society and in working life has increased day by day. Women in Turkey not only carry out the cleaning, catering and caring works of family but also participate increasingly in working life as an essential and important part of labor force. As a natural result of this participation, women witness with some problems in their workplaces in working life. Among these are low levels of wage compared to men and less level of chance given to women in the management posts can be named.

Legal adjustments are not enough in order to solve discrimination problem against women. Therefore it will be better to handle this subject from economic, social and political aspects. However, the subject will be discussed from the point of legal aspect in particular constitution, labor and social security legislation. An overview of discrimination against women in the working life especially gender-based discrimination will be presented and then the regulations of positive discrimination against women will be examined.

The concept of discrimination: Discrimination can be defined as unfair treatment against an individual or a group based on prejudice (http://wordnet.princeton.edu). The Turkish Language Institution defines discrimination as unequal treatment, separation, exclusion, restriction or superiority of individuals, groups or societies due to their various characteristics (race, religion, language, gender etc.) (http://www.tdk.gov.tr). Another definition of discrimination can be given as deprivation of some members of a state or a society from certain rights and/or privileges. Therefore, some groups or individuals are subject to discrimination and they are not included in a certain classification due to a definition used in separating members of society either by their race, religion or gender (Ataov, 1996).

Labor market is one of the most common areas of areas of discrimination in social life. Some of the workers in the market can not equally benefit from the opportunities offered by society and they are deprived of equal treatment. Accordingly, discrimination processes in the labor market are based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability and health conditions. Discriminated workers group is either totally excluded from the labor market or they have a job with negative working conditions (Sapancali, 2007).

Recent studies demonstrate that the participation rates of women in the labor force are high and this situation is not temporary especially in industrialized countries (Larson, 1990). However, there is a reality that women are not equal to men in working life. In the workshop held by ILO on March 29, 2007 in Bangladesh titled as Promoting Gender Equality at the Workplace, following findings were put forward (ILO, 2007):

• There is a negative attitude towards women at the workplace
• There is a lack of awareness among women on their rights
• Adequate importance is not given to gender issues
• There is a mind set women are less capable compared to men
• There is no cooperation between men and women
Forms of gender discrimination: In its most basic sense, gender discrimination can be defined as bad treatment against an individual or a group due to their gender, denial of their access to certain rights and opportunities (Mari, 2001). Gender-based discrimination is divided into two categories as negative-positive discrimination and direct-indirect discrimination.

Negative-positive discrimination: Quality differences among individuals of society, lack of quality below average or being different than the others being minority, having innate biological and genetic differences have always been used against individuals. Especially, when it comes to gender issue both men and women have some obligations to share stemming from legal, social and economic reasons. Disadvantages caused by these obligations also cause unequal treatment of an individual both in private and working life as well as leave an individual deprived of rights due to subjective reasons. Therefore, employer’s obligation to treat equally in working life imposes two responsibilities on employer, negative and positive responsibility. Negative obligation refers to not to discriminate without just cause and the other is the equal treatment obligation. This refers to negative discrimination among the types of discrimination (Mollamahmutoglu, 2004).

Sometimes positive discrimination is necessary to treat individuals equally. Positive discrimination referring to the discrimination obligation in the presence of just causes is the discrimination in favor of disadvantaged people because of several reasons such as, their religion, language, color, race, health and social status and gender. For example, gender-based discrimination is one of the frequently encountered types of discrimination in working life. It is also possible to see positive discrimination applications such as rare business trip assignment of women workers, exemption of women workers from very risky tasks and not assigning them to positions affecting negatively family order. It should also be noted that positive discrimination has a significant social effect (http://www.turkhukuksitesi.com/makale_840.htm).

There are several regulations that include positive discrimination provisions for disadvantaged groups of the society (women, young workers, disabled, ex-prisoners and terror victims, etc.) particularly in the Labor Law No. 4857 and Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510.

Direct-indirect discrimination: Direct discrimination means treating one employee less favorably than another on the grounds of his/her personal characteristics (gender, color, age or race). Rejection of a prospective employee’s job application due to his/her gender can be regarded as gender discrimination (http://www.equalopportunity.murdoch.edu.au/).

Indirect discrimination occurs when a situation appears not to be suspicious leading to discrimination, but in effect has a discriminatory impact on a particular gender group. At this point, special conditions emerging as a result of belonging to a group become important. For example, since part-time working, seems unrelated to discrimination is preferred by women, an employer’s regulations against part-time workers affecting indirectly certain gender group namely women lead to indirect discrimination (Arisoy and Demir, 2007). Exposure to adverse working conditions because of employees’ personal characteristics is called indirect discrimination. The effects of working-hours on women and children and individuals’ religious practices are clear examples (Gill and Monaghan, 2003).

Indirect discrimination occurs in two ways. The first is indirect discrimination arising from marriage or the position within the family and the other is indirect discrimination arising from part-time work (Arisoy and Demir, 2007).

Regulations on gender discrimination and positive discrimination: Female labor force in working life has increased day by day. However, traditional roles of women in the family as mother and spouse pose an obstacle to ensure gender equality in economic platform. Besides equality of women and men, protection of women in working life is also important. Starting from constitution, several legal regulations have been made to protect women and prevent gender discrimination in Turkey. Considering these regulations in terms of Labor and Social Security Legislation, many provisions including positive discrimination will be seen.

Regulations in the constitution: Articles on equality are included in the constitution since the on stitution of 1924, first Turkish constitution. According to Article 69 of the Constitution of 1924. All Turks are equal before the law and are obliged to respect the law. All privileges of whatever description claimed by groups, classes, families and individuals are abolished and forbidden. Article 87 of the Constitution made primary education obligatory for all Turks either man or woman. Article 12 of the Constitution of 1961 emphasizes the principle of equality with the following statement. All individuals are equal before the law irrespective of language, race, gender, political opinion, philosophical views, religion or religious sect. No privileges shall be granted to any individual, family, group or class. Article 10 of the Constitution of 1982 stresses equality in the same manner with the following provision: All individuals are equal before the law, irrespective of language, race, co