Earthquake will further limit women's employment - report

A report by a Turkish labor union warns that the massive earthquakes that shook Turkey on Feb. 6 will affect employment for women in the region, which already suffers from underemployment.

The women's labor report of the Genel-Is union, affiliated to DISK (Revolutionary Worker Unions Confederation) said the gap between women living in the earthquake-affected provinces and the rest of Turkey will widen.

In 2021, the unemployment rate for women nationwide was 14.7%, while in the earthquake zone it was 16.8%, 2.1 percentage points higher, the report said.

According to the report, 73% of the labor force (2,292,000) in the earthquake zone was made up of men, while women accounted for only 26.7% (837,000) of the labor force.

One other problem is the lack of social security.

“52% of women employed in the region work unregistered, so they do not hıave access to unemployment benefit or short-time working allowance,” the report said.