Gender inequality, capabilities and lack of capabilities: Social policy reflections

This study focuses on the capabilities of young women and men to lead a life as they reason to value, the inequalities like gender inequalities in their lives and their coping experiences with inequalities and obstacles created by these structural inequalities. Qualitative research methodology has been used and ın-depth interviews have been conducted with 16 women and 12 men who were once the beneficiaries of conditional cash transfer for education. Interview guideline has been formed with the help of the theoretical framework of capability approach. MAXQDA qualitative analysis software has been used for data analysis, and the methodological steps of grounded theory has followed to analyze the data. All the study participants are residents of Keçiören and majority of their families were immigrated from the villages of central Anatolia after they were drifted apart from the agricultural production. Half of the participants are still the beneficiaries of social welfare programs while significant part of them either have recently applied for a social welfare program or the program was recently canceled. Eventhough, they benefitted from conditional cash transfer for education, a good part of them dropped school prematurely because of poverty, institutional incapacities, and structural inequalities like gender inequalities. Today, they are still struggling with the insecurities in the labor market and the need for social welfare still goes on even if their living conditions have relatively improved. Therefore, there is a need for transformative and emancipatory social policies besides the social welfare programs which solely aim to transfer cash in order to enhance capabilities and economic, cultural, political and social freedoms and challenge inequalities. Social welfare programs should be rights-based and go beyond partial economic transfers and evaluate inequalities that condemns people to poverty and restricts their agencies. Social work practice with welfare beneficiaries should include critical and emancipatory perspectives like anti-oppressive practice and feminist social work to challenge inequalities and transform them.