Effects of Increasing Female Labor Force in Catering System: Case of Turkey

Öz

High female participation in the labor market suggests both a development in the relative economic and social position of ladies furthermore an expanded use of human potential for financial advancement. The female labor force participation rates have expanded significantly in developing nations. But like many developing nations in Turkey also the female labor force participation rates demonstrate a declining pattern throughout the last decades. In Turkey, from 1955 to 2009 labor force participation rate reduced from 72 percent to around 29 percent. This proportion is almost 33% of the rate for men as of late. Also, Turkey has the least rate among OECD nations. A few elements can be taken to clarify this pattern. But taking into consideration about the catering system in Turkey alone, female labor participation has been increased in a considerable manner. In this paper; we research the explanations behind the increasing pattern in the female labor force for catering system in Turkey and research on the impacts on the increment. Some of those are the changing composition of the labor force away from agriculture towards non-agricultural activities, late increments in enrollment rates at all levels of education which offer more opportunities for women to apply for hospitality industry related jobs, slight change of cultural values against their participation in economy, favorable hospitality and catering labor market conditions, reduced wage gap and equality in promotion opportunities between female and male workers, advancements in social security and Turkish government laws, flexible working hours, developments in catering and hospitality industries exposing more job opportunities and busy life style and its complications.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development statistics, Turkey’s female labor force participation level is currently very low at 29% compared with the averages of 61% in the global aspect respectively. The rate of participation has shown a rise in the past decade although, especially in the fields of catering, hospitality and garments. This research paper is about a deep insight related to the most recent trends and effects of female labor force participation in Turkey utilizing 3 various household level data bases in Turkey including Harvard Business School Database (HBS), Labor Force Statistics (LFS) and Global Economic Databank during the period of last decade from 2005-2015. The study suggests that Government ought to organize female education and financial advancement in its developmental efforts with a specific end goal to accomplish more elevated amounts of participation of females in labor force especially in the catering system.