Women in Turkey not happy, hopeful, free or safe: Survey

Women in Turkey not happy, hopeful, free or safe: Survey
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A mere 6.3% of women participants in SODEV's survey have said that they are feeling safe, and 2.9% think laws are sufficient for preventing violence against women.

A vast majority of women in Turkey are neither "happy" nor "hopeful," and neither "feel free" nor "safe" according to a report based on the results of a recent survey.

The survey on "Problems Faced by Women in Economic and Social Life" was conducted by Social Democracy Foundation (SODEV) in cooperation with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Turkey, and SODEV released the results on Thursday.

According to the survey, a mere one fourth of all participants replied affirmatively to the question, "Are you happy as a woman living in Turkey?" and over 60% answered negatively.

The results also show that more middle class women are unhappy compared to both upper and lower class women. 65.5% of the participants in C1C2 socio-economic groups said they were not happy.

The rate of participants who said they are happy are almost equal among working and non working women, with respectively 24.6% and 24.5%.

Women who voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the last parliamentary elections constitute the only group in which more women feel happy, though by a slim margin. Slightly over 42% in this group said they are happy, while 39.9% said they are not.

Only 2.6% of the supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), 9.4% of the supporters of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), and 19% of the supporters of the nationalist opposition Good Party said they are happy.

Slightly over 23% of all participants answered positively to the question, "Are you hopeful for the future?"

While 40.1% of AKP supporters said they are hopeful (compared to 44% who said they are not), only 1.3% of HDP supporters, 8.8% of CHP supporters and 16.5% of Good Party supporters replied affirmatively.

Similarly, only 21.1% said "they feel free." In stark contrast to 40.1% of AKP supporters who answered positively, 1.3% of HDP supporters and 6.1% of CHP supporters said they feel free. The rate of affirmative replies was 15.2% among Good Party supporters.

Asked if they are feeling safe, 6.3% of all participants said they felt safe, with 10.5% of AKP supporters replying positively, followed by 6.3% of Good Party supporters, 3.7% of CHP supporters and 1.3% of HDP supporters.

Asked if they think laws punishing violence against women are preventive enough in Turkey, 2.9% said yes with none of the participants among HDP supporters replying affirmatively. Even among the supporters of AKP, the rate of positive replies is a mere 5.9%.

Over 56% of all participants think "they have been subjected to gender discrimination at work," while 43.4% think otherwise. 70.2% of HDP supporters, 68.6% of Good Party supporters and 66% of CHP supporters think they have been subjected to discrimination because they are women.

Nearly half of all participants (49.2%) said they do not have a woman role model that they tend to identify themselves with.