Women hold 16.3 percent of executive positions: Researcher

ISTANBUL - Demirören News Agency

Women have been holding 16.3 percent of middle-senior level executive positions in Turkey as of 2018, marking an increase of 1.9 percent in six years, a gender analyst has said, basing the figures on a recently released report by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

“We have pleasing numbers regarding women-related issues. The percentage of women at middle-senior level executive positions was 14.4 percent in 2012, but rose to 16.3 percent in 2018,” said Zeynep Banu Dalaman, the chairman of the Istanbul-based Altınbaş University’s Social Gender Equality and Women Studies Research and Application Center (TOKAMER).

Dalaman, who based the figures on TÜİK’s recently released report named “Social Gender Statistics 2019,” also shared data regarding child marriages.

“The ratio regarding the issue of ‘child brides,’ which is sometimes discussed in the public, has gone down from 29 per thousand to 19 per thousand. We come across such [child marriage] cases the most in the [eastern province of] Ağrı. They do not almost exist in the western provinces,” said Dalaman.

She said that in 2014, some 5.8 percent of girls aged 16-17 got married, whereas this rate fell to 3.8 percent. “And these are pleasing numbers,” said Dalaman.

Another issue that Dalaman discussed with regard to TÜİK’s report is the number of children that Turks want. As the level of education increases, the number of children that people want is “limited by two,” whereas for less educated people, this number goes up to three or more, said Dalaman.

“People who want three or more children are mostly primary school graduates,” the sociologist said.

Dalaman said that despite the “improvements” regarding gender-related issues in Turkey, “not much distance” has still been covered in this topic in the country.

“This is the case in politics and also in other areas. We have seen in the last local elections that in the decision-making mechanisms, we cannot take gender equality to a desired level,” she said.