democracy & gender in turkey
DESCRIPTION
Gender legal disparity and reform in TurkeyTRANSCRIPT
Democracy & Gender in Turkey
Equality is both cause and effect of democratic participation
Discrimination & Gender
Gender disparity is a result of institutional discrimination
Social change improves democratic participation
Democratic participation brings about institutional change
Institutional change enhances democratic participation
Gender & the Law beginning of the 20th century
The German civil code stated “to the husband belong the decisions in all affairs of the married life”
The French civil code required a wife’s “obedience” to her husband.
Ottoman family laws at the time were based on traditional Islamic law (Sharia).
Even Sweden didn’t get an egalitarian Marriage Law until 1915
Population, urbanisation, female literacy in Turkey, 1945-2000
Year Population (m) Urbanisation Female literacy
1945 18.8 25% 13%1960 27.8 32% 25%1980 44.7 44% 55%2000 67.8 65% 81%
Social Change in the 20th century
At the End of the 20th century
Turkey was the only European society where:
Women had unequal status under both civil and criminal law
The civil code recognised the husband as head of the household
The penal code was based on the notion of family honour, rather than individual rights
Minding the Gender Gap
World Economic Forum assesses the following:
economic participation
educational attainment
health
political empowerment
Global Gender Gap Index 2007The top
1. Sweden2. Norway3. Finland4. Iceland
5. Germany6. Philippines
7. New Zealand8. Denmark9. Ireland10. Spain
11. United Kingdom12. Netherlands
The bottom117 Burkina Faso
118 Iran119 Oman120 Egypt
121 Turkey122 Morocco
123 Benin124 Saudi Arabia
125 Nepal126 Pakistan
127 Chad128 Yemen
Turkey’s Gender GapIndicator Spain Bulgaria TurkeyFemale labour force 45% 41% 28%Legislators, senior officials, managers 30% 30% 6%
Professional and technical workers 47% 34% 30%
Enrolment – primary 99% 95% 87%Enrolment – secondary 99% 87% -Enrolment – tertiary 72% 44% 24%Women in parliament 36% 22% 4%Women in ministerial positions 50% 24% 4%
Legal Change or Institutional Change?
UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women found 29 articles of Turkey’s Penal Code discriminated against women
Reform of the Penal Code was made a condition for the start of EU membership negotiations.
Legal scholars drafted a new Penal Code that didn’t change any of the articles that discriminated against women
The association Women for Women’s Human Rights started a public campaign to have changes adopted.
Institutional Change
a real public debate on gender equality succeeded in changing the law
Government commitment to work with NGOs
High degree of transparency and public consultation
cross-party consensus between AKP and CHP
first time Parliament produced its own draft law.
The new Penal Code
35 articles concerning women and their rights to autonomy were changed
sexual crimes recognised as violations of individual women’s rights not as crimes against family honour
criminalises rape in marriage and sexual harassment in the workplace
no sentence reductions for honour killings or rapists promising to marry their victims
GETTING TO SPAIN?
In Spain, until 1975 a woman:
needed her husband’s permission to work, buy property or even travel
could aspire to marriage and motherhood but little more
was legally obliged to obey her husband
TURKEY’S FUTURE?
In Spain today ...
40 percent of judges and doctors
65 percent of schoolteachers
50 percent of senior government ministers
... are women
GENDER EQUALITY
the lesson is simple:
Democratic progress depends on inclusion and participation
• Sources:• European Stability Initiative, SEX AND POWER IN TURKEY:
Feminism, Islam and the Maturing of Turkish Democracy, Berlin- Istanbul June 2007
• http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/esi_document_id_90.pdf• World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report 2007 • http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/report2007.pdf• Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit Europe and
Central Asia Region, Bridging the Gender Gap in Turkey: A Milestone Towards Faster Socio-economic Development and Poverty Reduction, September 16, 2003
• http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTECAREGTOPGENDER/Resources/TurkeyCGA.pdf