Continuity and Change in Social Policy Approaches toward Women

Abstract

AbstractThis article discusses the development of social policy in Turkey from a gender perspective. Focusing on continuities and changes in the formal social security system and the labor market regulation, it aims to describe the place of women in social policy until today. I argue that social policy measures from the late Ottoman era to the single-party period laid the foundation for later gendered policy approaches through specific assumptions on women's roles and position. With the introduction of a modern social security system in the post-World War II period women have increasingly become integrated into the system, either as workers or as dependents of workers; however, assumptions about women's place in the family and the labor market did not change much. Familial dependency and traditional gender norms were assumed and reinforced through certain gender-differentiated policies, and women workers have been encouraged to go back home. Over the last two decades, however, the conceptualization of women in social policy formulations has shifted towards a policy that encourages female labor and equal treatment of genders.