Outrage over gender discrimination in Police Chief Training Center job posting

ISTANBUL

DHA Photo

Turkey’s Police Chief Training Center (PAEM) has stirred controversy by releasing a job posting that openly admits it intends to hire nine times more men than women as deputy police chiefs. 

In a vacancy announcement issued on Aug. 10, PAEM advertised its plans to hire 2,000 deputy police chief candidates with a posting that read: “2,000 deputy police chief candidates will be hired, of which 200 will be women and 1,800 will be male.”

Republican People’s Party (CHP) Istanbul deputy Didem Engin protested against the advert and submitted a parliamentary question to be answered by Interior Minister Sebahattin Öztürk. 

Engin said the advert constituted a violation of the 10th article of the constitution and contradicted with Turkey’s obligations as a signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Article 10 of the Turkish Constitution guarantees equality before law regardless of an individual’s language, race, color, religion or sex. Similarly, CEDAW aims to eliminate all discriminatory laws against women and incorporate gender equality into countries’ legal systems. 

In her question, Engin asked which officials were liable for these violations and asked about the reasons for introducing the discriminatory quota.

“Considering that our country is behind many developed nations in terms of women’s employment, it is unacceptable to release this vacancy announcement that contradicts the constitution,” she stated in a press release. 

“The World Economic Forum’s 2014 Global Gender Gap Report revealed that Turkey ranks 125 out of 142 countries. According to the report, Turkey ranks 132nd in terms of equality of opportunities, 128th in terms of the labor force participation rate, and 133rd in terms of women in ministerial positions. Only 9.4 percent of senior managers are women, while only 5.5 percent of all police officers are women,” it read. 

Engin called for the swift correction of the advert’s discriminatory aspects.

Meanwhile, she also underlined that candidates responding to the posting were being unjustly treated, as the announcement stated that PAEM would only accept results from the 2015 Public Personnel Selection Exam (KPSS), although KPSS results are officially valid for two years. 

“PAEM is also expected to accept 2014 KPSS exam results in order to avoid injustice to those candidates who did not apply for the 2015 exam, believing that their results from the previous year would be valid,” Engin said.