A sociological analysis on women's employment within the context of Turkey and EU relations in the 21st century

This study is about women's employment in Turkey in the course of integration to the European Union. In the context of global, economic chances, in this study, it is investigated that, how and in what direction the adaptation process to the European Union affected women's employment in Turkey. For this purpose, firstly, the historical background of the European Union and its approach to social policies and employment are discussed. On this basis, the relation between EU employment strategy and global economy policies is examined. Secondly, women's labor is taken to the center of the discussion and on the basis of flexible production and flexicurity, the place of women's labor in the flexible employment is laid out. Subsequently, In the light of feminist perspective, EU notion of employment which was developed with neoliberal policies is discussed. In this study, the outlook of women's employment Turkey is presented by TUIK data, and various integration period agreements and progress reports published between 2000 and 2018 are studied and interpreted. In this study it is concluded that the policies implemented during the EU integration period are under the effects of global economic shift and neo-liberal policies, these policies and related regulations have reduced the quality of participation to labor force and have been obstacle to the freedom and empowerment of women and negatively affected women's employment by putting women employment in the secondary place.