Toplumsal Cinsiyet Eşitliği Ve Bakim Emeği
Gender Equality and Care Labor

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, reproduction of gender inequality is discussed on the basis of relations between women's waged labor in labor market and non-waged care labor in private sphere. Participation of women in production processes in developing and underdeveloped countries is addressed within the framework of Women and Development approaches, which have provided a critical commentary on the mainstream development literature since the 1970s. Among these approaches, the "Gender and Development (GAD)" perspective, which focuses on the empowerment of women, has expanded the focus of gender inequality not only to the presence of women in the public sphere and the labor market, but also to include "reproduction" processes that create inequality in the private sphere. In this context, women's participation in the production process is considered as one of the most important conditions of their empowerment, conceptualized as acquiring "the ability to make strategic choices" about their own lives. However, the strong resistance to change of the gender division of labor in the reproduction processes, with the emphasis on care giving within the household, leads women to choose not to exist in the labor market at all, or to tend towards flexible, precarious and low-wage forms of work. The perception of care labor as a natural extension of the tasks that women undertake in the household is reinforced both by resistance to the sharing of related chores by men; and not adequately tackling as an important social policy issue by the state. In this context in order to ensure gender equality through participation to the labor market, the state and/or local governments should deliver institutionalized care services (for children, elderly, disabled etc.), which are -safe, free or low-cost- and accessible by women from every socio economical status.

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