WOMEN ROLE IN WATER SECTOR OF TURKEY

WOMEN ROLE IN WATER SECTOR OF TURKEY

Ş. Yurdagül KUMCU PhD., Civil Engineer, General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works, Technical Research and Quality Control Department, Hydraulic Lab., e-mail: [email protected]

Şahnaz TİĞREK Assist. Prof., Civil Engineer, Middle East Technical University, Civil Engineering Department, Hydraulics Lab., e-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

By the year of 2004, population of Turkey approximately 70 million. The share of urban and rural population is 73% and 27%, respectively. In 1923, when the new republic is established, the majority of the population lived in rural area. The absolute value of the rural population has not changed by the years but the percentage is decreased. This dramatic change in percentage is due to modernization of the agricultural industry. State hydraulic works has been main governmental organization to play a role in development of the agricultural area by introducing water structures facilities. In order to analyze the women role in water, sector one should look into State Hydraulic works personal structure at first. Therefore, in this study, number of women employed in State Hydraulic Works over the years will be analyzed. Change in number of women at administration level will also be given. However while doing analyzing the situation of the country should be also included. For example in engineering education, the share of the women is 22%. However, the share of the women in higher education is 43%. Additionally, labor force participation of women is 25%. On the other hand, 48% of the labor force is in agricultural activities and share of women is about 48%. Thus 70% of the women are working in agricultural area. Another important figure is that between 1990-2000, share of women in employed person decreased from 34% to 28% but it increased from 49% to 49.2% in agriculture. Thus, there is a feminization in agricultural area. Therefore, State should pay attention to this change while introducing the infrastructures to rural area. Corresponding agencies should employ women at every level.

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INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT

Therefore, in this study, women role in water sector in Turkey will be analyzed and by looking at state institutes, universities, private sector and agricultural activities. The capacities of them will be presented. Comparisons with the Western Countries and Middle East Countries will also be figured out. Key Words: Women in water, water resources, females in agriculture, women role in irrigation INTRODUCTION

Worldwide, the demand for is growing rapidly, and in many countries the cost of developing new supplies is becoming prohibitive. Simultaneously, increased water pollution is worsening the imbalance between water supply and demand. For these reasons, water resources development and irrigation are of critical importance in efforts to improve food security and sustainable agricultural production. Women play a major role in domestic water management in areas where safe water and drainage are not available in the house. In fact, there is an often-repeated assumption in the water sector that women make better treasures for water committees than men (Wijk-Sibesma 1998). In most recent international policy statements and initiatives, a focus on women has been seen as critical to improving the management or governance of water within an overall context of poverty alleviation. It was concluded that women’s involvement would improve governance. Since women bear the brunt of the poor management, they could be empowered through greater and more effective participation. At the International Conference on Freshwater in Born in 2001, the policy statement emphasized the need for a gendered approach involving both men and women, while also suggesting that in order to achieve this, women’s roles in water-related areas needed strengthening. Other international meeting and policy statements, concerned with broad spectrum of goals from poverty eradication to environmental sustainability, have been concerned wit both water and gender equality. The Millennium Development Goals adopted at the Millennium Summit at the United Nations in New York in 2000 included goals to ‘Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women’s and to ‘Ensure Environmental Sustainability’. At the World Summit on Sustainability Development in Johannesburg (2000) commitments were made to promote women’s empowerment and emancipation and incorporate gender equality in all the activities specified in Agenda 21, the Millennium Development Goals and the Plan of Implementation of the Summit (Women and Water, 2005).

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BASIN RESOURCES PROTECTION

In this paper it will be discussed that women’s role in activities relating to water. By the beginning of the demographic structures of the women’s, their roles in watersociety are compared with their expected roles. This research shows that, the women take important roles in all water branches in the private sectors, institutes, universities and governmental associations. DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE OF TURKEY

By the year of 2004, population of Turkey approximately 70 million. The share of urban and rural population is 73% and 27%, respectively. In 1923, when the new republic is established, the majority of the population lived in rural area. According to 2000 Census, they were 67.8 million people in Turkey. The population of the Females and Males are 33.45 and 34.35, respectively. Table 1.a. Demographic structure of Females in Turkey

City and Village Population by Sex Female Population (%) Years

1975

1980

1985

1995

2000

City

40.12

42.52

51.44

57.70

64.5

Village

59.88

57.48

48.56

42.30

35.50

Table 1.b. Demographic structure of Females in Turkey

City and Village Population by Sex Male Population (%) Years

1975

1980

1985

1995

2000

City

43.41

42.26

54.58

60.29

64.3

Village

56.59

54.74

45.42

39.71

34.70

It is obvious these tables that, the population of women are almost equal to men population in Turkey. EDUCATION

Table 2 shows whole population by literacy and sex for the period of 25 years. In 1975, nearly 78 % of males are literate, whereas 50% of females are literate. In the year of 2000, these ratios are increased for both males and females. The gap between males and females are getting smaller. In Turkey, there is a compulsory military service for men and men get education during their military service. That is the one

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of the important reasons for the higher percentage of the males. Beside that, in rural areas although the primary education is compulsory for both girls and boys, there are still families who do not register girls to schools. Table 2. Population by literacy and sex for the period of last 25 years

Population by Literacy and Sex (Age≥6) Years

1975

1980

1985

1990

2000

Females (%) Illiterate

49.49

45.33

31.84

28.02

19.36

Literate

50.51

54.67

68.16

71.98

80.64

Males Illiterate

23.79

20.02

13.48

Literate

76.21

79.98

86.52

11.19 88.81

6.14 93.86

By the year of 2000, the adult (age≥25) females and males populations are literates 16 897 656 and 16 763 174, respectively. The percentages of higher educated ones are 5.4% in women and 10.2% for men.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS OF THE WOMEN RIGHTS

The women rights in Turkey in the context of modern society initiated in 1843 during the Ottoman Empire. It accelerated during the Republic era. Table 3 shows development of women right by the years. Table 3. Women rights (especially selected ones)

Years

Rights

1843

Midwifery of Medicine Education

1858

Educational Schools for Girls

1869

Compulsory Education for Girls

1870

Opening of Teacher’s Training Schools for Girls

1913

Participating in Official Employee

1934

To be chosen Right

1971

The first Woman Minister

1991

The first Woman Governor

1993

The First Woman Prime Minister

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19 39 19 43 19 46 19 50 19 54 19 57 19 61 19 65 19 69 19 73 19 77 19 83 19 87 19 91 19 95 19 99 20 02

5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 19 35

Female (%)


Election Year Figure 1. Number of Parliamentarians by Election Year and Sex

WOMEN SHARE IN WATER SECTOR

In this section women share in water sector is analyzed with respect to higher education. Although many fields have ties with the water sector, main branches related to water sector are selected mainly as Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Agricultural and Forestry. In fact, other branches such as low, medicine, economy, and etc. deal with work related with water sector. Here main actors of the water sectors are taken as civil engineers, environmental engineers, agricultural engineers, forestry engineers, fishery, and biology. At the time being, there is no record for each individual branch. Therefore, Mathematical and natural sciences and agricultural and forestry figures are given in Table 4 in order to have some idea. Moreover, Figure 2 is the graphical representation of Table 4.

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INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT Table 4. Graduated Population by the Years

Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Agriculture and Forestry

Total Graduated Population

Mat. And Nat. Science (%)

Agr. and Forestry (%)

1990-1991

1 996

1 283

52 991

3.77

2.42

1991-1992

2 296

1 266

54 866

4.18

2.31

1992-1993

2 558

1 326

61 114

4.19

2.17

1993-1994

2 673

1 611

64 002

4.18

2.52

1994-1995

3 019

1 463

66 570

4.54

2.20

1995-1996

3 218

1 790

73 839

4.36

2.42

1996-1997

3 369

1 938

79 737

4.23

2.43

1997-1998

4 390

1 825

92 411

4.75

1.97

1998-1999

5 012

2 070

105 838

4.74

1.96

1999-2000

5 440

1 867

110 450

4.93

1.69

2000-2001

6 327

1 745

119 566

5.29

1.46

2001-2002

6 179

1 844

130 898

4.72

1.41

2002-2003

6 180

1 428

134 987

4.58

1.06

Total

52 657

21 456

1 147 269

4.59

1.87

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 19 90 -1 99 1 19 91 -1 99 2 19 92 -1 99 3 19 93 -1 99 4 19 94 -1 99 5 19 95 -1 99 6 19 96 -1 99 7 19 97 -1 99 8 19 98 -1 99 9 19 99 -2 00 0 20 00 -2 00 1 20 01 -2 00 2 20 02 -2 00 3

Women Percentage in Total Graduated Adults by Water Related Sciences (%)

Years

Years Mat. And Nat. Science (%)

Agr. and Foresty (%)

Figure 2. Graduated Population by the Years

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WOMEN SHARE IN ACADEMICIANS

In order to investigate the women role in academicians occupied with water, and water management, 48 governmental universities, hydraulics departments were scanned and it was found that 15 of them do not have civil engineering department and 4 of the rest of the civil engineering departments do not have hydraulic branches.

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120

Unive rs itie s in T urk e y Figure 3. Women Academicians in Hydraulics Department in Turkey

Figure 3 shows the women participation in Hydraulic Branches of Universities. It is clear from this figure that, in some cases, the percentages of women population is so high. If one looks the total percentage, it is found that 26% of the all technical researchers, engineers, are occupied with women in hydraulics of civil engineers in Universities. WOMEN SHARE WITH INSTUTITIONAL RESPECT

In order to analyze the women role in water sector one should look into State Hydraulic works personal structure at first. Therefore, in this study, number of women employed in State Hydraulic Works over the years will be analyzed. Change in number of women at administration level will also be given. In order to analyze these numbers, firstly all women and total number of technical personnel working in

280


an administration level including General Directorate and Regional Directorates were gathered and analyzed. Figure 4 shows the Administrator Women Number in a Total Administrator Personnel in DSI.

A d m in istrato r W o m en N u m b er in a T o tal A d m in istrato r P erso n n el (% )

10.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 0.0 1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

Ye a rs R egional D irec torates

G eneral D irec torates

Figure 4. Administrator Women Number in Total Administrator Personnel in DSI by the years of 1984

One can conclude from this figure that the data give increasing trend in both Regional Directorates and General Directorates by the years. While the women personnel percentage in total number is 1% in 1984 in Regional Directorates, it increases about twice of it in 2005. Increasing in numbers can more clearly be seen in General Directorate. In fact this ratio reaches about 7% in General Directorates in 2005. The trend line belonging to the General directorates peaks with 9% ratio in 2000. The figure totally displays increasing trend for both General and Regional Directorates of DSI. That is, women take part in administration level in State Hydraulics Water. Especially these ratios are compared with the population of the women graduated from universities in total graduated person number, the effectiveness of women is rather high and it can be seen more clearly. Nevertheless, the numbers are still about 2.5% and 7% for Regional and General Directorates of DSI, respectively. WOMEN SHARE WITH AGRICULTURAL RESPECT

In many cases water resource policies and programmers have proven detrimental to women’s water rights and therefore to their sustainable management and use of water. Interventions such as irrigation habitually fail to take into consideration the existing imbalance between men’s and women’s ownership rights, division of labor

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and incomes. By raising the value of the land, irrigation brings about social change which usually favors men. Similarly, women undertake more responsibilities than men in Turkey. Statistical researches show that, while 26% of working males is working in the agricultural areas, 57% of the males are working on the agricultural areas. Figure 5 figure out employed persons in females by status in employment and branch of economic activity. Moreover, Thus 70% of the women are working in agricultural area. That is, above the half of the working females are depends on agricultural works. In other words, females have an important role on agricultural sector of Turkey.

Figure 5. Female Status in Economic Activities

CONCLUSIONS

Water management is concerned with the planning, design, implementation, and maintenance of a water project or program to ensure that, water, as a source is efficiently and effectively used by the community. Water management involves the participatory approach of empowering communities especially women to provide, protect and safeguard their own water sources. Women play an important role in water management. They are most often the collectors, users, managers of water in the household as well as farmers of irrigated, and rainfed crops (Women and Water Resources, 2005). Because of these roles, women have considerable knowledge about water resources, including quality and reliability, restrictions and acceptable storage methods, and are key to the success of water resources development and irrigation policies and programs. Women influence should be particularly strong in technology choice according to what they can manage their locality. They need to influence the design of facilities for water use, which forms part of their daily routine. These daily routine activities include laundering, providing drinking water for animals, hand washing, just to

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mention a few. Women can also be influential in decisions concerning location, applicability of sharing arrangements of water resources and use the time they meet at the water source discuss issues of water and effect change (Kabonesa and Happy, 2003). Local communities must participate in all phases of water management, ensuring the full involvement of women in view of their crucial role in the practical dayto-day supply, management and use of water. More efforts is necessary to increase women share involvement in water management. Women should be promoted as leaders. It is necessary to train women as community promoters and managers of agricultural units. Women should be encouraged to take part in water users associations. By training women in agricultural sector will increase the productivity. These kinds of projects are all around the world (Maharaj, 2003). In Turkey, women have been particularly active in financial aspects of water supply projects such as fundraising, fees collecting, fund keeping and supervision of local boards, because of their willingness and dependability in these roles. Especially in agricultural sector, as there is a feminization in agricultural area, women’s participation in the planning, designing, implementation and management of water projects or programs developed should ensure that the systems meet the demands of women, and that they function better. Women’ involvement is necessary throughout the whole projects process from planning to sustainability to make a difference. State should pay attention to this change while introducing the infrastructures to rural area. Corresponding agencies should employ women at every level. REFERENCES

Kabonesa, C. and Happy, M. 2003. ‘‘The Gender Gap in Water Resource Management in The Nile Basin Countries: The Case for Rural Women in Uganda’’. Role of NGO’s and Media in the Nile Basin Initiative, Kyoto, Japan. Maharaj, N. 2003. ‘‘The gender approach to water management: lessons learnt from around the globe’’, Gender and Water Alliance/WEDC, p.12. Turkey’s Statistical Yearbook 2004. State Institute of Statistics, Prime Ministry, Republic of Turkey. Watts, S. 2004. ‘‘Women, Water Management, and Health’’. Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol. 10, No:11, Cairo, Egypt. Women and Water 2005. United Nations, Women 2000 and Beyond. Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Wijk-Sibesma, C. V. 1998. ‘‘Gender in water resources management, water supply and sanitation: Roles and realities revisited’’, Technical Paper No:33-E. http://www.fao.org/FOCUS/E/Women/Water-e.htm