Participation of women in decision-making processes within the family: Its applications and problems (Şanlıurfa province example)

The research is planned and carried out in order to investigate the participation of women in the decision-making processes within the family. Totally, 400 married women who were the mother or custody of the students in Dr. Cavit Özyeğin Primary School which is located in Center District of Şanlıurfa Province are included into the sample. Factor analysis method is applied to the scales of the application before and after the decision making process within the family and of problems that are encountered before and after the decision making. Thereafter the applications that are encountered before and after the decision making, and the problems that are encountered before and after the decision making are examined with respect to the educational status, duration of marriage, the women?s? spouses? educational status, number of individuals in the family, average monthly income level of the family unit are analysed by Kruskal Wallis H-Test. The relationship between the application before and after the decision making and the problems that are encountered before and after the decision making and the employment status of the woman?s spouse, and the influence of the location where the family resided fort he major part of their marriage period is investigated by Mann Whitney U test. The relationship between the applications before and after the decision making and the problems that are encountered during these applications before and after the decision making process are analyzed by Regression Model.The composition structure of the married women who were included into the sample: 69.5% were at age 32 or over, 35.5% were not literate, 9.15% were not employed, 36.3% were married for 21 years or more, 42.7% had between 4 to 7 children. The composition structure of the husbands of the married women were as follows: 37.0% were in age 46 or older, 6.5% were not literate, 68.3% were employed, 54.3% were involved in independent free trade business. Those who reported that the place where they lived during the major part of the marriage was a rural residence was 33.8%, those who reported that their monthly income is between 501.- TL and 1.000.- TL is found as 56.3% of the spouses.When the distribution of the individuals who gave decisions on the subjects that are related with the family is investigated, it is found that the male took decisions on the fields and with percentages as shown below: 43.0% were involved in the maintenance of the house, 50.8% during the selection of household goods, 55.8% in which of the household belongings that are needed shall be bought, 55.0% during selection and buying of the household appliances, 61.0% in determining the persons and institutions which the family set establish contact (such as neighbor, relatives, associations, and etc.), 62.8% in the social activities in which the family shall participate or attend (such as movie, theater, wedding and engagement ceremonies, meetings and etc.), 46.3% in selection of the house and 34.1% during selection of the family investments.When the issues about the future of the boy and girl offspring of the family is reviewed, the woman decided jointly together with her spouse on the following decisions: 49.5% about deciding the level of education that the girls shall have, 41.1% about with whom the girl offspring shall establish friendship, 34.9% about when the girl offspring shall get married, 45.4% about the level of education that the boys shall have, 35.7 about which profession or occupation shall the boys select or adopt, 31.9% about with whom the boy offspring shall establish friendship with.It is observed that there existed a statistically significant relationship between the applications before and after the decision making and the average monthly income of the family, the employment status, marriage duration, the educational status of the woman?s spouse, the number of members in the family and the monthly average income level of the family at p<0.05 level. It is found that there is no statistically significant relationship between the employment status of the woman?s spouse and the place where the family has resided for the major part of marriage (p>0.05).Statistically significant relationships at p<0.05 level are found in the correlations between the variables including the problems that are encountered during the decision making processes and its applications and the educational status of the woman, the educational status of the woman?s spouse, the place where the family lived for the major part of the marriage and the average monthly income of the family unit. Significant relationship is not found with that of the employment status of the woman and the employment status of the woman?s spouse (p>0.05). Regression Model which is used in order to investigate the impact level of the decision making and the problems that are encountered during applications on applications before and after the decision making is found as statistically significant at: (F=31.867; p=0.000<0.05).Key Words: Decision making, decision making in family, woman, decision making applications and problems, participation of woman on decision making.