Abstract
This study addresses the widespread discriminatory policies against headscarved professionals in the Turkish job market, by focusing on the female-intensive banking sector. Although the number of professionals wearing headscarves has increased since 2013 with the removal of the ban on headscarves for workers in the public sector, we argue that significant ideological discriminatory practices and bias against these women still exist. To expose this hidden reality and uncover its dynamics, we undertook exploratory in-depth interviews with 30 professionals from the Turkish banking sector, including both men and women. Our findings verify a severe underrepresentation of headscarved professionals in the commercial banking sector. Whereas, after 2013, state-owned banks began, to some extent, to recruit women wearing the headscarf, private commercial banks have not amended their exclusionist policy towards headscarved white-collar employees. Research findings confirm that in the Turkish banking sector, policies regarding the headscarf are still shaped by ideological corporate values. This study suggests that the appointment and promotion of female professionals in the Turkish banking sector are blocked by long-established stereotypes and prejudices, which stand in the way of inclusive practices supporting social equity, as well as diversity and the equality of women in the workplace.
Highlights
The headscarf has been a problematic and controversial issue in Turkish society and politics for decades
There are no published statistics on the number of women wearing the headscarf, it is a recognized fact that a majority of the female population in the country belongs to this category
As a result of this situation, a relatively large segment of Turkish women has long been prohibited from entering the labor market
Summary
The headscarf has been a problematic and controversial issue in Turkish society and politics for decades. There are no published statistics on the number of women wearing the headscarf, it is a recognized fact that a majority of the female population in the country belongs to this category (As an indicator; in a survey conducted by Konda (2010, [1]), the ratio of the female participants covering their hair was above 70%). Despite this fact, Turkish women with a headscarf have faced various bans and restrictions in the country for a long period of time. Elaborating on this, Akboğa (2019, [3]) states that secular elites in the country have regarded the headscarf as a threat to the secular structure of the state and have used various anti-democratic tools to ban it
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