Turkey: Women in managerial post rate at 17.3 pct

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - The proportion of females at upper and middle level management position stood at 17.3 percent in Turkey in 2017, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Wednesday ahead of International Women’s Day.

Data showed that female employment rate was less than half of male's employment rate in the country in 2017.

"The employment rate of population aged 15 and over was 47.1 percent, while this rate was 65.6 percent for males and 28.9 percent for females in Turkey," TurkStat said.

It noted that the higher the education status of females, the more they participated in the labor force.

"The labour force participation rate was 27.7 percent for females who graduated from school less than high school, 34.3 percent for females who graduated from high school, 42.6 percent for females who graduated from vocational high school and 72.7 percent for females who graduated from higher education," it said.

In 2017, the proportion of women who were 25 years of age and older and completed at least one education level in the total population reached to 83.6 percent.

When the employment rate was analyzed by sex and economic activities, the highest women employment rate was registered in service sector.

"In the service sector, the total employment rate was 54.1 percent, which was 53.2 percent for male and 56.1 percent for female [in 2017]," it noted.

The proportion of female professors in higher education was 31.2 percent in the educational year of 2017/18 in the country.

In 2018, women constituted 22.1 percent of total ambassadors who work at the Turkish Foreign Affairs Ministry, it added.

TurkStat data also showed that the mean age at first marriage for females who officially made their first marriage in 2018 was 24.8, while that of males was 27.8 in Turkey.