Monitoring Gender Equality in Times of Multiple Crises

In today's world, where multiple crises such as war, migration, climate change, disasters, discrimination, and the erosion of democratic institutions are prevalent, monitoring gender equality is more critical than ever. The fourth edition of the Monitoring Gender Equality in Turkey Report, prepared under the CEIDizler Project funded by the European Union, focuses on developments between 2024 and 2026.

The report addresses gender equality from an intersectional perspective, revealing how economic, social, environmental and political crises feed into each other and deepen their impact.

DISASTERS HAVE INCREASED SOCIAL TENSION

In Turkey, a country known for its disasters, the recovery process remained limited following the earthquake on 6-7 February 2023. Despite the severity of the destruction and loss of life caused by the earthquakes, the failure to hold those responsible to account undermined the sense of justice and heightened tensions. The climate crisis has increased the frequency and severity of many natural disasters; forest fires and droughts in the summer months, frost events in the winter months, and workplace fires in industrial areas have intensified the impact of disasters. Studies on disasters have focused more on physical consequences or technical aspects, neglecting gender equality, and these inadequate approaches have created many tensions in social life which have become visible in different areas of daily life.

POVERTY HAS BECOME A PERMANENT REALITY

The ongoing economic crisis in Turkey during the 2025–2026 period, combined with high inflation and income erosion, has made poverty permanent for large segments of society. However, poverty is not a problem that can be explained solely by insufficient income; it has an intersectional nature, combining axes such as gender, age, region, class, disability, and migrant status. Monitoring the gendered dimension of poverty is extremely limited because official indicators are based on the assumption that income is equally distributed within households. Nevertheless, the picture is striking, especially for older women in recent years. With pension payments eroding in real terms against high inflation, the risk of poverty or social exclusion among the population aged 65 and over rose from 16.8 per cent in 2021 to 22.8 per cent in 2025, with the rate higher among elderly women at 23.6 per cent. Although the lowest pension rose from 2,327 TL in 2021 to 14,469 TL in 2025, food prices increased approximately 6.4 times and rents 7.5 times during the same period, causing a significant decline in the purchasing power of the elderly. Women, who have worked for lower wages, with less security and intermittently throughout their lives, continue to be the group least able to access a secure income in old age due to their limited access to the pension system. The fact that approximately 3.9 million of those receiving widow's and orphan's pensions are women shows that this mechanism functions more as an indirect source of income linked to the family than as rights-based social security for women.

The fact that social protection expenditure accounts for only about 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) in Turkey, well below the OECD average, reveals that while the number of beneficiaries is increasing, the real support per person is decreasing and the protective capacity of the system is weakening. Indeed, while the number of people receiving salaries and assistance under social protection rose from 14.6 million in 2021 to 17.5 million in 2024, the share of women declined from 43% to 40%. Of those receiving pensions and old-age allowances, 9.7 million are men and 3.24 million are women. Women's limited access to paid and secure jobs, combined with the rapid erosion of both pension income and wages in the face of high inflation and the prevalence of precarious employment, has deepened female poverty.

VIOLENCE IN THE WORKPLACE AND FATAL WORKPLACE INCIDENTS

Poverty is accompanied by violence in the workplace. The most blatant forms of violence in the workplace are the daily occurrences of workplace murders disguised as accidents. One of the most striking examples of this was the death by burning of a group of women and girls forced to work in extremely hazardous conditions without any safety measures at a perfume workshop in Dilovasi. Traditionally, occupational health and safety measures have been taken in male-dominated sectors where risks are more visible, so the accidents and murders to which female workers are exposed are not very visible except in striking cases. However, these numbers have been increasing over the years, but since a significant proportion of women work informally, they are not recorded in the Social Security Institution (SGK) records. According to data from the Occupational Health and Safety Council (ISIG), the number of female workers who died on the job was 106 in 2024 and 138 in 2025. The number of deaths recorded by the SGK in 2024 was 54. It should also be noted that SGK data, which only takes registered workers into account, does not reflect the deaths of workers employed informally in its statistics.

According to SGK data, the number of child workers aged 14-18 who suffered work accidents increased approximately 3.5 times in 2024 compared to 2016. In 2024, 9,238 girls and 34,638 boys suffered work accidents. The number of girls who suffered work accidents in 2024 increased by 30 per cent compared to the previous year, while the number of boys increased by 15 per cent. The fact that children receiving apprenticeship training at Vocational Training Centers (MESEM) are employed without adequate occupational safety measures and without the necessary supervision, resulting in them losing their lives or becoming desperate and committing suicide, reveals a striking picture where child labor, worker health, occupational safety, violence and education intersect. With the introduction of state support in 2021, the number of apprentice students in MESEMs increased by 2.5 times compared to the previous year. This increase was mainly observed among male students, with the number of male students in the 2024/2025 academic year being approximately five times that of female students. As poverty forces more and more families to send their children to MESEMs, children are exploited as cheap labor in these institutions, where weekly education hours are very limited.

CLIMATE CRISIS IS INCREASING DISASTERS

People lose their lives in natural or man-made disasters. The earthquake we experienced in 2023 was a natural disaster, but it was the unregulated, poorly constructed buildings, collapsed bridges and roads that caused deaths. Similarly, natural disasters such as droughts, floods and extreme heat claim human lives and negatively impact the environment and living conditions. We know that an increasing proportion of these are linked to the climate crisis and stem from capitalism's insatiable drive for growth and profit. Undoubtedly, adverse climate-related conditions also closely affect women's labor, making conditions even more difficult for women working as small producers, unpaid family workers or paid workers, especially in rural areas where property distribution is unequal and disadvantages women. Data on the "Agricultural Enterprise Labor Cost Structure" for 2024 shows that labor costs in agriculture are rising very rapidly and that this increase has not eliminated the gender pay gap. While the daily wage of seasonal male workers increased by 84.8% to 1,007 TL, the daily wage of female workers remained at 890 TL, an increase of 85.9%. When examining informality in agriculture by gender, it is seen that the rate for women is significantly higher than that for men. From 2014 to the present, the rate of informality among women in agriculture has remained above 90%, maintaining its high level overall despite limited declines in some periods. Among men, the rate fluctuated in a lower band, approximately between 70% and 80%. Working without social security remains a very serious problem for both genders.

VIOLENCE IS SOUNDING THE ALARM

Violence against women, a key area in terms of gender equality, is sounding the alarm with increasing numbers of female murders. Although there are no official data on this issue, the Platform to Stop Female Murders (KCDP) and Bianet Male Violence Register publish data on female deaths. According to Bianet's data, men killed at least 299 women in 2025. KCDP data indicates that a total of 653 women lost their lives due to murder or suspicious deaths in the same year. Public institutions, however, share limited data on violence against women and focus more on producing policy documents. The initial results of a study conducted to measure the prevalence of violence across the country were published in the TÜIK bulletin in July 2025, but the full report has not yet been shared. Recently, the 5th National Action Plan to Combat Violence Against Women was shared with the public by the Ministry of Family and Social Services.

The year 2025 points to a contradictory picture in terms of gender equality in access to justice. On the one hand, efforts to reflect anti-gender equality rhetoric in the legal sphere, particularly the proposed expansion of the scope of Article 225 of the Turkish Penal Code in the draft 11th Judicial Package and the proposed regulations in the Civil Code limiting rights related to the gender affirmation process, stood out as initiatives that undermine the principle of recognizing and protecting rights. Civil society, particularly the Women's Platform for Equality (ESIK) and LGBTI+ organizations, played a decisive role in the withdrawal of these regulations, but new draft laws on the subject are being prepared. On the other hand, in the field of combating violence against women, the increase in the number of Women's Emergency Centers (SÖNIM) and Women's Medical Support Services, along with the adoption of the 5th National Action Plan covering the period 2026–2030 ( ), points to a comprehensive policy framework encompassing prevention, protection, intervention, and empowerment. However, the plan's treatment of women as a largely homogeneous group and its failure to sufficiently concretize policy tools specific to different social segments indicate that structural limitations in access to justice persist.

WOMEN LIVE LONGER BUT ARE UNHEALTHIER

Although relevant public documents in the health sector contain provisions on protecting maternal health and reducing maternal mortality, issues such as sexual health, access to contraceptive methods, and voluntary abortion services appear to have been largely overlooked. In Turkey, life expectancy at birth is calculated as 80.5 years for women and 75.5 years for men. Although women live longer than men, they do not spend their entire lives in good health. Women's healthy life expectancy is 2.6 years behind that of men. This indicates that women spend a longer period of their lives with illness and/or functional impairment. The economic crisis and deepening poverty also limit women's access to preventive health services. No concrete steps have yet been taken regarding the HPV vaccine, which the Ministry of Health announced would be free by the end of 2025. Although there has been a decline in maternal mortality rates, nearly one in two maternal deaths (44.8%) remains preventable. The adolescent fertility rate for the 15–19 age group fell from 21.8 per thousand in 2017 to 10.1 per thousand in 2024, but it remains above the European Union member countries' average adolescent fertility rate of 7 per thousand. The decline in the total fertility rate from 2.38 children in 2001 to 1.48 in 2024 has heightened concerns about population replacement levels. The declaration of the period 2026–2035 as the "Decade of Family and Population" reflects these concerns in the policy arena and shows that health policies are moving away from a rights-based approach.

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME SHARE BELOW 0.4 PERCENT

However, analysis of public expenditure reveals that resources allocated for women's rights and protection against violence remain extremely limited, reflecting a political choice. The share of the Women's Empowerment Programme is below 0.4 per thousand in the central government budget and approximately 0.3 per thousand in total public expenditure. At the same time, the absence of gender impact analyses in the 2026 Budget Justification document limits the assessment of the budget's capacity to reduce inequalities. An examination of specific ministries shows that, for example, the Ministry of Justice allocates less than 0.3 per cent of its own budget to "Education and Rehabilitation Activities for Women Prisoners and Detainees." A similar trend is observed in the budgets of the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Ministry of National Education. The budget allocated for 2026 for the ASHB's programs "Combating Discrimination and Violence against Women" and "Improving Women's Social Status and Ensuring Equal Opportunities" constitutes 0.9 per cent and 0.5 per cent of the total program costs, respectively. The share of the Ministry of National Education's sub-programs " “Access to Education and Equal Opportunities" and "Non-Formal Education", which include activities for girls among other activities, in the total program costs is approximately 5%. Overall, the budget items show that addressing inequalities affecting women and girls is not among the priority issues.

19 MAYORS ARRESTED, 13 MUNICIPALITIES PLACED UNDER ADMINISTRATOR

We can say that local governments spent the period between 2024 and 2025 in uncertainty. During this period, the central government's control over local governments continued through various means. Between the 19 March 2024 elections and 10 February 2026, 19 mayors were arrested and 13 municipalities were placed under trusteeship. Mayors who served in the previous term and were arrested during this term are not included in this number. In terms of service provision, the most striking development is the decrease in the number of shelters. While there were 149 shelters in 2022, 32 of which were managed by municipalities, by 2025 the number of shelters had fallen to 141, with only 25 managed by municipalities. The most significant development in services occurred in home care for the elderly. Twenty-six of the 30 metropolitan municipalities provide this service, and the scope of the service has also expanded compared to previous periods.

The developments we have attempted to address in this report aim to draw attention to inequalities across all strata of society, as well as gender inequalities. At the same time, it reveals how patriarchy has strengthened and made resistance more difficult, alongside the anti-democratic decisions and practices we have all been subjected to over the past two years. The limited resources allocated by the state to achieve gender equality, a constitutional obligation, indicate that there is no will to implement the intentions expressed in official documents.