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SCHOOL TO WORK OR SCHOOL TO HOME? AN ASSESSMENT OF GIRLS’
VOCATIONAL SECONDARY EDUCATION IN TURKEY
Fatoş Gökşen, Ayşe Alnıaçık, Deniz Yükseker (Koç University)
Abstract
In Turkey, vocational education for women has become a significant social policy issue in
recent years as it stands at the intersection of two critical gender policy debates: increasing
girls’ secondary school enrolment and women’s employment. Both domains present a gloomy
picture regarding gender equality in Turkey, which is evident in low rates of secondary school
enrolment and labour force participation.
This paper attempts to demonstrate how new policies giving priority to vocational education
as a means to increase girls’ secondary school enrolment and labour force participation might
have some adverse outcomes in reinforcing gender inequalities. Based on qualitative
fieldwork (focus group discussions) with students and graduates of girls’ vocational and
technical high schools in four cities, we conduct a three-tiered analysis. Firstly we unpack the
issue of “choice” and gender tracking. Our findings suggest that more so than being
adolescents’ own choices, school and program preferences reflect and reproduce prevailing
patterns of gender norms, gender segregation and gender division of labour in the society and
the labour market. Secondly, we focus on transitions from school to work. We argue that
gendered investments in education might not remove but may even reinforce the gender
division of labour in the labour market as well as at home. Thirdly, we discuss the failures in
the school to work transition and analyse the dynamics through which this transition
transforms into a “school to home” transition whereby discouraged graduates return to
housewifery.
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Introduction
In Turkey, vocational education for women has become a significant social policy issue in
recent years as it stands at the intersection of two critical gender policy debates: increasing
girls’ secondary school enrolment and women’s employment. Both domains present a gloomy
picture regarding gender equality in Turkey, which is evident in very low secondary school
enrolment rates for girls at 64 per cent as opposed to 75 per cent for boys, and significantly
low labour force participation rates for women at 29 per cent. In policy documents, Girls’
Vocational and Technical High Schools (GTVHSs) are recommended as the most viable
means to solve these pressing problems. However, this policy orientation fails to acknowledge
the questionable quality of education in these schools, the problematic link between
vocational education and the labour market, and more importantly, their role in reproducing a
gender-segregated labour force and the traditional family structure. Moreover, it ignores the
role of vocational education (separation between general and vocational education) in
strengthening the connection between schooling and social stratification.
Turkey presents an interesting social policy case for the fact that it is governed by a
conservative political party whose ideology is based on preserving women’s role in the family
as mothers and wives but at the same time making legislative changes securing women’s
status as independent citizens. In this context, the social policy framework is one ridden with
contradictions: while targeting increasing rates of education and employment for women, it
also encourages them to remain homemakers and caretakers. Vocational education for girls is
a good vantage point to analyse these contradictions.
This paper attempts to demonstrate how new policies giving priority to vocational education
as a means to increase girls’ secondary school enrolment and labour force participation might
have some adverse outcomes in reinforcing gender inequalities. Based on qualitative
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fieldwork (focus group discussions) with students and graduates of GTVHSs conducted in
four cities, we make a three-tiered analysis. Firstly we unpack the issue of “choice” and
gender tracking. Our findings suggest that more so than being adolescents’ own choices,
school and program preferences reflect and reproduce prevailing patterns of gender norms,
gender segregation and gender division of labour in the society and the labour market.
Secondly, we focus on transitions from school to work. We argue that gendered investments
in education might not remove but may even reinforce the gender division of labour in the
labour market as well as at home.
Following from the above question, thirdly, we discuss the failures in the school to work
transition and analyse the dynamics through which this transition transforms into a “school to
home” transition. We focus on the critical location of GTVHSs in social policies which are
based on familial ideologies such that women become likely to opt out of the labour force
back into homemaking and child caring roles after completing vocational training.
Women’s Employment, Education and Social Policies
While Turkey is debating vocational education for men and women for various reasons,
Europe has also returned to vocationalism debates due to labour market challenges and rising
youth unemployment. The agenda of the Europe 2020 Strategy refers to both education and
employment as a means to fight against poverty and social exclusion. Recent debates point at
“investing in youth as a key priority” and call for a “new impetus” for vocational education
and training (European Commission, 2010). Increasing women’s and men’s labor force
participation rate to 75 percent is set as the target of Europe 2020. Eliminating gender
stereotypes and promoting gender equality at all levels of education and combating gender
segregation are also among the components of this strategy.
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The return to employment as the solution of poverty and social exclusion in the social policy
orientations is noteworthy with its emphasis on maintaining the “employability” of excluded
groups. Regarding the emphasis on education and employment through skills upgrading and
activation policies, Daly (2012: 283) states that “involvement in a less regulated and poorer
quality labour market” is proposed as the main solution to poverty and social exclusion
problems.
The literature on the evolution of social policies in Europe has long debated the implications
of this pro-workfare policy orientation on gender inequalities. Many authors stress the
transformation of families from the male breadwinner/female carer model to “adult worker
model” even in the countries where conservative welfare regimes prevail (Lewis, 2006; Lewis
et al. 2008; Orloff, 2011). However, this turn does not necessarily result in gender equality in
employment patterns, as gender segregation in occupations, different working time
arrangements, wage penalties, and the limits of parity between men and women in terms of
paid and unpaid care work persist. Various explanations are proposed to explain this lasting
problem. The “maintenance and reinforcement of difference” between men and women in
employment patterns were discussed when the prevalence of part-time work and interrupted
careers among women are considered (Daly, 2000). The fact that the policy of “universal
caregiver model,” which requires both institutional and ideational change, is weaker in
comparison to the adult worker model is another explanation of lasting inequalities (Orloff,
2002; Lewis, 2006). The argument that welfare states themselves might condition the lasting
inequalities in women’s employment is found in more crystallized manner in Mandel and
Semyonov (2006) and Estévez-Abe (2005). Directly focusing on the welfare state itself in its
role as the implementer of family policies and as an employer, Mandel and Semyonov (2006:
iv) argue that through “adjusting the demands of employment to women’s home duties or
allowing working mothers reduced working hours and long leaves from work” the welfare
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state “preserve women’s dominant roles as mothers and wives” which in turn, “impede
women’s abilities to compete successfully with men for powerful and lucrative occupational
positions.” Similarly, Estévez-Abe (2005) argues that there might be unintended gendered
consequences of women friendly social policies such as employment protection as these
contribute to the persistence of horizontal and vertical segregation in occupations. She also
stresses the role played by educational institutions and policies on the lasting gender
differences in the patterns of labour market participation in European welfare states.
Although there are different trajectories of the debates in Turkey and Europe, the place of
women in welfare and employment policies in Turkey is also very tenuous. Turkish
government’s on-going efforts to reform social policy present a paradox. On the one hand
there are projects to increase women’s labour force participation while on the other, there is
growing emphasis on family values, the family as the primary care provider, and on
increasing fertility rates. Whereas employment policies are piecemeal and of questionable
effectiveness, familialism and pronatalism are well on the way of being institutionalized in
legislative and policy reforms. For instance, the primary goal of the Ministry of Family and
Social Policy, established in June 2011, is stated as strengthening the family, neglecting the
contrast between the idealized image and the lived experience of family (Yazici, 2012). The
ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP) has declared a goal of raising women’s labour
force participation from 29 per cent in 2011 to only 35 per cent in 2023 (ASPB, 2012). This is
not an ambitious goal, given that women’s labour force participation rate had already risen by
5.5 per cent in the last six years without a policy target! (TURKSTAT, 2012). Besides, there
are concerns about the quality of new employment creation for women (Kılıç 2008; Buğra
and Yakut-Çakar, 2010; Dedeoğlu, 2012). Kılıç (2008) says that increasing incentives for
home-based work by women as the preferred path for women’s labour force participation.
Dedeoğlu (2012) argues that support for women’s employment has been left to market5
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oriented measures, such as tax-reduction and flexible work, adding that the lack of
work/family life reconciliation policies, especially public child care facilities and parental
leave schemes. Buğra and Yakut-Çakar (2010: 534) argue that there is “little reason to be
optimistic” about the employment policies’ impact on the socio-economic status of women.
Especially critical of policies to boost women’s self-employment, they underline that the
government neglects the statistical evidence on the significance of poverty rates among selfemployed women. In fact, women’s self-employment is 90 per cent informal and these
women constitute the bottom level of the Turkish labour market just above the unpaid family
workers in agriculture (Ercan, 2011).
Meanwhile, there is a clear turn towards vocationalism in education, as the government is
ambitious to increase the rate of vocational education at the secondary level to 65 per cent
from its current 44 per cent (MEB, 2011).
Despite differing labour market conditions and women’s activity in the labour force, the
foregoing discussion shows the parallels between Turkish and EU policy debates about
policies to attain gender equality in employment. Both the literature based on Turkey’s social
policy regime and recent debates in Europe clearly show that gender regimes operate as
gatekeepers, favouring policies compatible with culturally transmitted assumptions and tenets
about gender roles. Following from these debates, in the next section, we will discuss the
literature which theorizes the gendered landscape of vocational education, and its
consequences on labour market and gender relations.
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Evaluating Girls’ Vocational Education: Approaches and Concepts
Research on vocational education either focuses on the school to work transition or treats it as
a process of socialization and reproduction of inequalities. In either case, the way in which
gender is integrated into vocational education is an important subject of analysis.
Many studies that focus on the school to work transition compare academic (general) and
vocational education in terms of employment outcomes, with conflicting conclusions
regarding the meaning of “success.” If success in the school to work transition is identified
with the lower risk of unemployment during the initial employment transition, vocational
education is argued to be more beneficial than general education. Arum and Shavit (1995:
187) name this initial positive effect of vocational education on employment as a “safety net”
effect that “reduces the risk of falling to the bottom of the labor queue.” However, when
success is defined in terms of higher occupational status, vocational education fails to fulfil
this goal since it “diverts” students from higher education and its higher returns on the labour
market (Shavit and Müller, 2000; Müller, 2005). Summarizing the literature on the safety net
and diversion effects of vocational education, Iannelli and Raffe (2007: 50) argue that
“vocational education is [not] consistently associated with better labour-market outcomes.” If
the success in the employment outcomes is analysed over the life course, the benefits during
the initial employment transition might get lost. Accordingly, Korpi et al. (2003) argue that
once an individual becomes unemployed, general education degrees might be more beneficial
for reemployment. Similarly, Estevez-Abe (2005) argues that the success associated with
specific skills education is sustainable in the countries where employment protection is strong.
However, Estevez-Abe also emphasizes that this positive effect is not reliable for women,
since their careers are interrupted due to childbearing responsibilities and women face skill
depreciation more frequently, even if their employment is protected.
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In school to work transition studies, the effect of vocational education is found to vary across
countries and by gender within countries. The degree of track differentiation, occupational
specificity of the curriculum, linkages between education and the labour market, welfare
regime characteristics, thus the level of social protection and family structure define the
variation in the employment outcomes of vocational education between countries (EstevezAbe et al., 1999; Müller, 2005; Walther, 2006; Ianellli and Raffe, 2007; Andersen and van de
Werfhorst, 2010).
In terms of gender inequalities in vocational education, some research focuses on
occupational segregation by sex. Charles et al. (2001) argue that, in education systems
emphasizing vocational training and gender-typed educational investments, the degree of
occupational segregation by sex increases and becomes persistent over the life course. Charles
et al. (2001: 384) add that vocational tracking in secondary school level is inevitably gender
tracked. Through vocational education, “adolescents’ earliest gendered choices are effectively
locked in, and prevailing patterns of sex segregation in the labour market are incorporated into
the educational system” (see also Smyth, 2005).
The literature on Germany, with its long history of vocational education, demonstrates how
gender is integrated into vocational education. Gundert and Mayer (2012) argue that gender
segregation in vocational training and fields of study has conditioned the difference in the
occupational destinations of women and men. While women have been underrepresented in
the upper service sector and among the skilled manual workers, they were overrepresented in
non-manual routine job positions. Kraus also emphasizes the inequalities between girls and
boys in vocational education such that girls are concentrated on relatively less diverse
branches that are predominantly defined as female occupations and earn lower wages in the
apprenticeship stage and in full-time employment (Kraus, 2006). The foregoing suggests that
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the present inequality indicator is not lower educational attainment for women, but
educational choices and occupational destinations which continue to be typed by gender.
The literature on vocational education as a socialization and/or reproduction process focuses
on how the ends of vocational education are actually incorporated in the school context. The
issue of choice and the process of socialization into gendered and classed subjectivities are
emphasized. Gaskell (1985) questions the “issue of choice” by asking why and how students
believe that they themselves choose their curriculum track, although the hierarchical
organization of schooling seems to be consistently sorting students into tracks according to
their unequal positions. She argues that girls assess the opportunity structure in the gender
segregated labour market and prospective family responsibilities, and try to “resolve
dilemmas that arose out of the structure of schooling, femininity, and work” (1985: 52).
Gaskell emphasizes that students have agency; yet, her analysis shows that structural
inequalities penetrate into the decision-making process (Gaskell, 1985). Bates emphasizes the
role of vocational education on the development of female occupational aspirations and
argues that vocational training “both serve[s] to reinforce links between class, gender and
occupational destinations and reinforce[s] the control of labour within occupations” (Bates,
1991: 225; also Colley et al, 2003). Studying transition to higher education, Smyth and Banks
(2012: 263) argue that different factors integrate with the agency of the students, and postschool planning reflects three sets of processes: “individual (and familial) habitus – that is, the
young person’s dispositions and orientations,; the institutional habitus of the school; and
‘agency’, the conscious way in which young people assess and choose among different postschool options.” Yet, in all accounts, it is unusual that the choice will contradict with the
dominant gendered and classed pathways since although women’s employment decisions are
a matter of choice, they still take place within a structure of constraint (McCall and Orloff,
2005).
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Studies that focus on the process of socialization and reproduction in schools are also critical
of the official arguments that consider vocational education as a process of skill acquisition
and qualification. The hidden curriculum argument dominates the conceptual frameworks in
these studies. For Frykholm and Nitzler (1993) “vocational teaching is characterized more by
socialization than by qualification, i.e. ... it is more a question of transmitting dispositions and
attitudes than of giving the knowledge and skills required for specific tasks” (Quoted in
Colley et al, 2003: 475, see also Bates, 1991). Education process “filters out” those students
who are unable to socialize into the labour market. Skeggs (1988) points out this “filtering
out” effect of vocational education clearly in the case of caring education where
unemployment and welfare state cuts condition the entry into the labour market. She argues
that the “ideal caring standards” covered in the courses “prioritize exclusive, familial forms
of care over and above occupational roles” and accordingly, students “socialize themselves
out of the labour market and establish familial responsibilities” (Skeggs, 1988: 131).
Girls’ Vocational Education in Turkey
The history of girls’ vocational education in Turkey dates earlier than the proclamation of the
republic in 1923. Initially established as girls’ industrial schools in 1865 with the goal of
preparing girls for employment, they were transformed into girls’ institutes in 1927. The
education in these institutes aimed at raising prospective housewives and mothers as a
complement to nationwide pronatalist policies and education programs for mothers on
hygiene, childcare and scientific motherhood (Akşit, 2004; Öztamur, 2004; Yenal, 2000;
Cindioğlu and Toktaş, 2006). As part of the developmentalist policies adopted after 1960, the
function of these schools were transformed back into training skilled women for the labour
force, and the name was changed into girls vocational high schools in 1974. However, the
match between the quality and content of vocational training and actual skills demands in the
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labour market always remained an issue of contention (KSGM, 2000). A government
commissioned report (KGSM, 2000) argues that the graduates of these schools are
disadvantageous in terms of transitions from school to work or higher education in
comparison to the girls enrolled in other vocational schools. Yet, this concern in the late
1990s with the disparity between GTVHSs and other co-educational vocational schools
disappeared after the JDP came to power in 2002.
In the last decade, the debate on vocational education has focused on improving the quality of
skills training through modernizing technology and strengthening linkages between skills
offered at these schools and employer needs (Barabasch and Petrick, 2012). In 2006, all girlsonly vocational schools were merged under the name of Girls Vocational and Technical High
Schools. Since the JDP government started to emphasize vocationalism the proportion of girls
who go into (especially girls-only) vocational education has started to rise.
The Method of the Study and Sampling
We conducted focused groups interviews separately with current students and graduates of
GTVHS in four different cities (Istanbul, Kayseri, Mersin and Denizli). The cities were
selected on the basis of the number of GTVHSs in their vicinity, variety of the programs they
offer, and their female labour force participation rates. In these cities, with the exception of
Kayseri which is traditionally a rather conservative city, women’s labour force participation is
higher than the average in Turkey due to the fact that they have strong urban economies and
manufacturing and agriculture-based industries. Denizli, for example, had very high number
of GTVHSs with wide range of programs. Female labour force participation (especially in
textile industry) in Denizli is the highest in Turkey with 39.9 per cent. Unlike Denizli, Kayseri
has a few GTVHSs with very limited program alternatives mostly concentrated around child
development, handcrafts, and food technology. Female labour force participation is only 21
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per cent with 43 per cent unemployment. Istanbul, Turkey’s largest metropolis and its
economic capital, offers a limited number GTVHSs with a variety of programs. Female labour
force participation is 34 per cent in Istanbul, which is lower than two other cities in the
sample. With these criteria we aimed to detect the relationships between vocational education
and demand of the labour market and the impact of the macro-social processes on the girls’
perception of possibilities and constraints regarding their futures.
During the focus group interviews participants were asked to especially discuss reasons for
preferring GTVHSs; quality of education in GTVHSs; perceptions regarding the relationship
between gender and vocations (employment); perceptions on the school-to-work transition;
and the gendered learning environment. Eight focus group discussions were conducted with a
total of 35 current students (age range between 16 and 19) and 32 graduates (age range
between 18 and 36). The distribution of programs in which the interviewees were enrolled is
more or less representative of the distribution in Turkey. Out of the 67 participants the
majority (26) were in child development, 13 in clothing and fashion, eight in IT, eight in food
technology, and the rest were enrolled in handcrafts, graphic design, and textile technology.
An Analysis of Gendered Vocational Education in Turkey
In this part of the paper, we will assess the findings of our focus group interviews in light of
the literature discussed above. We will focus on three main issues: how students “choose” the
GTVHSs and programs within these schools; the process of school-to-work transition of
GTVHS graduates; and what we call the school to home transition that stems from the failure
of the former transition in a highly gendered process.
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Choosing Girls’ Vocational Schools: A “Golden Bracelet”?
A cursory look at the enrolment breakdowns shows a strong indication of a gendered choice
of these schools and certain fields within them. Among students enrolled in high schools in
2010, 44 per cent were in some vocational high school. Overall, the proportion of girls who
go to vocational and technical high schools among all females enrolled in secondary
education is 41 per cent. And within this, 36 per cent are in girls’ vocational and technical
high schools (MEB, 2011).
This shows GTVHSs’ significance for girls’ schooling at the secondary level, compared to the
rest of vocational high schools and as well as general high schools, which are all coeducational. Of more significance is students’ preferences among different vocational
programs within GTVHSs. Although there are 37 different tracks on offer in GTVHSs across
the country, 60 per cent of all students are concentrated in four fields. 36 per cent of them are
enrolled in child development and education, 13 per cent are in information technologies, 12
per cent are in clothing production technologies, and another 12 per cent in food and beverage
services. Despite the fact that IT is a relatively new field of study in GTVHSs, it is not
gender-neutral since it is often associated with secretarial work and office administration.
Our focus group interviews with students and graduates corroborate that this concentration in
certain fields is not accidental, but a result of gendered choices. Overall, it appears that both
current students and graduates in the focus groups were influenced by their families, relatives
and friends in choosing these schools, although they themselves had a say in this decision.
When asked why they preferred vocational secondary education, the majority emphasized that
they wanted to “have a vocation/craft” or “to be skilled”. This was often expressed in the
Turkish phrase to have a “golden bracelet” (altın bilezik), a term that alludes to the perception
that a skill is a store of value that would always help an individual to find a job.
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When probed further about why they chose to enrol in a GTVHS rather than another school,
gender-specific aspects of choice came up. Several graduates and students mentioned
conservative families’ preference of a school for their daughters where there are no or very
few male students. But more interviewees in all four cities emphasized that the programs of
study they preferred were only offered in GTVHSs. Child education was a favourite choice
partly because of the perception that there would be increasing job opportunities in this field:
the government has been expanding kindergarten education for pre-schoolers, raising
expectations that graduates of child development programs may be employed as teachers or
assistant teachers.
A noteworthy rationale behind this choice was expressed by many interviewees in all cities as
“at least I would become a good mother.” In Denizli, a city which boasts a high share of
Turkish textile exports, students and graduates said they had expected to easily find jobs in
the textile industry, and they also considered this program to be appropriate for women.
When I first started this high school, I thought that I would at least have a vocational
skill. But my opinions changed completely afterwards, especially after I joined the
child development program. When I finish high school, I would at least become a
good mother. Even if I cannot have a vocation, I can be a conscious mother (Kayseri,
student).
I chose my program myself. And the first reason is to become a good mother (Istanbul,
student).
I wouldn’t want weaving [which is offered in industrial vocational high schools]. That
is men’s job, it is difficult. It was better for me to go to GTVHS.... Clothing program
was better for me so I chose that.... Weaving is hard work, men prefer that (Denizli,
graduate).
But focus group discussions also gave an idea about the frustrations students suffered once
enrolled in these schools. There is high demand for programs such as child development but
not enough places in individual schools therefore only students with higher GPAs are
admitted. An issue that came up in the interviews is that teachers channel students to certain
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programs based on their perceptions of a student’s ability. Only by the eleventh grade do the
students get a real idea of what the education in that particular vocation entails, and focus
group interviews showed that many students were disappointed with the choices they made,
yet had no chance to change them.
Our teachers told us that this program [fine arts] has a future, that we could become
teachers. For instance I thought when I chose this program that I would get a
university education in teaching… But it has come to nothing. We were misguided
(Denizli, graduate).
This quotation not only exemplifies the frustration with a wrong choice, but also gives us a
clue about another reason why GTVHSs are preferred: the hope that graduates would be able
to go on to university more easily than graduates of regular high schools, since the existing
university entrance exam system gives additional scores to vocational school graduates who
want to go continue in their field (such as preschool teachers’ BA program for child
development graduates). In fact, this choice reveals another gendered aspect of our
interviewees’ perceptions of an appropriate vocation (meslek) for women. It is something
beyond what their high school diplomas could give them; especially in the provincial cities,
an appropriate meslek for a woman was repeatedly defined as becoming a teacher or a
government employee. So, their notion was closer to acquiring a profession, which the
Turkish word meslek also connotes.
These findings of the focus group interviews present parallels with studies on women’s
vocational education elsewhere. For instance, Turkish students of GTVHSs consider
themselves to have made a choice on their own as Gaskell (1985) emphasizes, however their
preferences are not independent of predominant gender roles and gendered expectations. As
Charles et al. (2001) argue, the “choice” that is enforced in adolescence is bound with norms
of gendered appropriate behaviours. These expectations in turn mould students’ choices
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within a “structure of constraint” (McCall and Orloff, 2005). So, what was initially intended
as the acquisition of a “golden bracelet” might turn into something that locks graduates of
these schools into unintended and undesirable outcomes. Girls’ vocational education in
Turkey becomes a form of gendered tracking, which might curtail opportunities, rather than
opening them up, in terms of school achievement, university education and gainful
employment. The next section will give a better idea about the constraints in employment
opportunities.
School to Work Transitions
Studies and statistics indicate that there is a link between higher levels of education and
women’s labour force participation in Turkey (e.g. World Bank, 2009). For instance, whereas
only 12.6 per cent of urban women with five years’ schooling were active in 2011, almost 30
per cent of urban women with high school education and 38.6 per cent of urban women with a
(girls’ and co-ed) vocational high school (girls’ and co-ed) degree were active. Among
university graduates, activity rate rose to 71 per cent (TURKSTAT, 2011). Therefore, genderspecific vocational education could also be expected play a role in increasing employment.1
Yet, our qualitative research findings indicate that the relation between education in GTVHSs
and employment outcomes are not strong. There are several reasons of this weak link, which
we will discuss in this section. First of all, there is a mismatch between the skills learned in
GTVHSs and the skills demanded in the labour market. Secondly, gendered notions of
appropriate jobs for women that are held by students’ families and communities constrain
opportunities in the labour market. Thirdly, graduates are discouraged in the labour market
since available jobs are often low paid, low status and have undesirable working conditions.
1
The vocational high school figure includes all schools in this category ranging from healthcare, commerce,
industry and tourism to schools for imams, all of which are co-educational. Unfortunately, TURKSTAT labor
force statistics do not provide breakdowns for GTVHSs (see Gökşen et al. 2011).
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Some interviewees complained about the quality and content of the vocational education they
received in GTVHSs. For example, IT programs offered courses on computer programs that
were no longer in use. Food and beverage students in both Kayseri and Mersin complained
about making dumplings at school, a skill that housewives are expected to have anyways.
Clothing production programs taught tailoring to students, which is not demanded by garment
or textile factories where they might find work. In programs that required tools (sewing
machines, etc.) for proper training, many mentioned a shortage in their schools compared to
the number of students. More significantly, focus group interviews pointed to the
shortcomings of the vocational internships that GTVHS students undertake in the eleventh
and twelfth grades. For instance, child development students in Kayseri reported having
internships in private day care centres where they were given cleaning tasks rather than
childcare tasks. Food and beverage production students said they had spent their internship
washing dishes in restaurants. The examples can be multiplied, but two important issues are
raised here: first of all, neither the vocational training nor the internships provided the
students we interviewed with relevant and sought after skills in the labour market, secondly,
during internships, students often got a first glimpse of the future jobs they were being trained
for, and were disappointed.
Perhaps of more concern is the fact that the gender division of labour in society and gendered
norms of behaviour and expectations from women channel GTVHS graduates into a few
“acceptable” and appropriate forms of employment and sectors. As we mentioned in the
previous section, families’ and students’ ideal of respectable meslek (vocation or profession)
for women is government service, and particularly teaching.2 The below words of a student
whose family migrated from south-eastern Turkey to the Mediterranean city of Mersin
Women comprise 46 per cent of “education employment” in Turkey (TURKSTAT, 2011). Although high
compared to women’s share in many other sectors, this proportion is still low compared to many European
countries where teaching is “gender segregated” because of the predominance of women.
2
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indicates how her conservative parents sought to strike a balance between her getting a
secondary education and prospect of working outside the home on the one hand, and
protecting her respectability in the community on the other.
It is not really possible for women to work unless the job has some connection to the
state. For instance, if the proprietor of a workplace is a man, what if something
happens [to you]? There is a notion that you cannot work there. But if the job has
some connection to the state, then that is sound, nothing would happen. [Question:
What if you cannot become a government employee?] Then [my parents] would not let
me work (Mersin, student).
But often, a diploma from a vocational high school is not sufficient to achieve the most
respectable working environment for a woman, becoming a school teacher. Getting a fouryear BA degree is required for teaching in primary and secondary education as well as for
preschool teachers. However, the content and quality of the education in GTVHSs do not
prepare students well for the nationally competitive university entrance exams in which math,
science, literature and other skills are important. Statistics on university placements of
GTVHS graduates demonstrate this in an alarming way. In 2010, around 4 per cent of
GTVHS graduates were admitted into four-year university programs, whereas around 32 per
cent of general high school graduates did so (the national ratio of placements was 24.2 per
cent) (MEB, 2011). In fact, all focus groups interviews showed that the biggest complaint
about the quality of education in GTVHSs was about the content and amount of what the
students called “culture courses” (kültür dersleri), which referred to those courses in the
general high school curriculum. But this did not keep them from aspiring to enter university,
as the most desirable path to employment. The following quotation exemplifies the difficulty
of getting a BA degree in teaching for a student whose chances for continuing university
education in her vocational field of hairdressing have also been foreclosed.
Until eleventh grade I had a dream that I could become a teacher. Then last year, they
closed it down [the BA program for hairdressing teachers].... My friends went on to
two-year colleges. But when they graduate they won’t be able to find employment as
teachers. They will end up working in hairdressers’ salons. I am in the worst
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situation.... My parents gave me a last chance to prepare for the university entrance
exams this year. They won’t let me have a nine-to-five job in a hair salon.... They
won’t let me work except as a teacher (Kayseri, graduate).
It is not only parents who hold certain views about the types of jobs women can do. Teachers
may also be bearers of traditional gender norms and inculcate these in the students.
Furthermore, prejudice against women in the job market may create additional hurdles. The
following observations of two graduates in Mersin demonstrate perceptions of the prejudice
that emanates from the school, the workplace and the broader society.
In Mersin, the catering sector revolves around tourist groups. But they wouldn’t let a
woman manage it. In a restaurant, only those who wash the dishes are women. I have
never seen a restaurant or café with a female cook. Why are great cooks always men?
“Because,” [our teachers] used to say, “you cannot cook food in those giant pots with
your weak arms.” They always belittled us at school (Mersin, graduate).
…. In hairdressing, you cannot earn money unless you own your own salon. Besides,
it is a man’s job, because female customers prefer male hairdressers. ….. And a
manicurist woman cannot work in a hair salon for men in Mersin…. If people were to
see a female manicurist in a men’s salon, they would immediate create a bad
reputation for her, saying, “oh look, she does manicure for men!” (Mersin, graduate).
Finally, GTVHS graduates face precarious conditions in the labour market for available jobs.
Child development graduates’ situation demonstrates this point well. Since government plans
to expand kindergarten education across the country have not yet materialized and since they
can only become teachers’ assistants, graduates of child development seek jobs in privately
owned day care centres. Our interviewees in Istanbul, Kayseri and Mersin reported receiving
less than the minimum wage, having no social security and being fired at will in day care
centres. Another case in point is the labour market experiences of the graduates of clothing
production. In Istanbul and Denizli, both with significant textile sectors, graduates reported
that in factories they had to work on the assembly line for minimum wage. They competed
against men and women with primary education to get these jobs. Graduates perceive
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assembly line jobs in textile factories to be below their skill level, but admit that there is no
industrial demand for their tailoring skills, either. They also complain about the hard
conditions of work in this sector.
These experiences actually stem from broader problems in Turkish labour markets.
Informality, low pay and long working hours are endemic in sectors such as garment
production, catering and childcare. On one hand, vocational schools raise the expectations of
young women who want to work, but once they graduate, the available jobs understandably
fall below their expectations. On the other hand, they don’t qualify for the more prestigious
jobs that require university degrees.
What are the consequences of the unfulfilled expectations, the gender norms, the prejudice
and the mismatch of skills that we discussed in this section for GTVHS graduates’ prospects
of employment? Out of 32 graduates only three were working during data collection, and two
had jobs unrelated to their vocational training. Five participants were enrolled in university,
six participants were taking university exam preparatory classes, and eight participants were
unemployed, several of whom had stopped looking for work. While these numbers are not
representative for GTVHS graduates across Turkey, they give a glimpse of the processes
whereby they are discouraged from participating in the labour force. In the next section, we
consider the particular gendered aspects of dropping out or never entering the labour force.
Reproduction of Familialism: School-to-Home?
Students enter GTVHSs with strong norms about the proper role of women in the family and
society. Gender-specific vocational education has never shed the societal perception that it
prepares young women for marriage and childrearing (Cindioğlu and Toktaş, 2006). This
perception, shared by students, families and communities alike, helps “socialize students out
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of the labour market,” as Skeggs (1988) has put it in the case of British students of vocational
caring courses.
In Kayseri, a conservative city as mentioned above, interviewees’ views about the importance
of women’s domestic roles were more accentuated. Education in a GTVHS was a plus in the
marriage market for a young woman (presumably as a good prospective housewife and
mother), but older women who sought to arrange marriages for their sons did not think highly
of already employed women or university students who were more likely to insist on working
in the future. GTVHS graduates’ perceptions about work were shaped in this context, as the
following quotations demonstrate.
In our vocation [child development] one does not have to work outside the home. You
can also do it at home…. You can take care of children at home (Kayseri, graduate).
I am not saying that working at home is better. But one does not have another
opportunity, if she does not want to jeopardize her marriage, then it is better to work at
home, because before your husband comes home, you will have finished all your
work. You will have taken care of your child, cooked your meals and completed all
your tasks (Kayseri, student).
Maybe in Kayseri it seems that women don’t work. But I see many women around me
who sell Avon or Amway products or other things. Or they stitch something and sell it
in neighbours’ homes. Or they make dumplings (mantı) and sell them (Kayseri,
student).
Husbands and mothers-in-law do not object to working at home…. For instance, my
sister-in-law crochets. She takes orders from people, makes doilies and sells them….
This is called working, but there is no freedom. One’s perspective on the world
becomes narrow like this. Work just becomes making something and receiving money
for it (Kayseri, graduate).
The contrast between the last two quotations is worth mentioning. The former woman
considers selling beauty and cleaning products as gainful work, a view that was echoed by
several students and graduates in Kayseri. The latter woman, however, resistant to dominant
gendered norms and critical of the GTVHS curriculum, considers piecework at home as lack
of freedom for a woman, a perspective that clearly attributes a value to employment status.
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While there is ambivalence towards working outside the home because of the premium put on
homemaking, labour market conditions may also discourage women and turn them to
housewifery. The skills gained at GTVHSs may actually help facilitate such return to the
home, as exemplified in the following quotation.
I started working in a day care centre. You start working at a very early hour. But then
I did not have enough time for my own child. Since I left home very early and came
back very late, I was told that my child kept asking for me. Then my husband said,
“instead of depriving our child of yourself, sit at home and take care of your own
child.” Therefore I preferred to stay home and look after my child (Mersin, graduate).
What is noteworthy in these remarks is that this graduate of child development and her family
see working outside as competing with her childcare responsibilities, at the same time that her
vocational training is used to justify her sitting at home. The low wages and long working
hours, then, help tip the balance in favour of the traditional gender role. Thus, familial ideals
subordinate the goal of employment, as Skeggs argues (1988).
Conclusion
In this paper our goal was to evaluate gender social policies in Turkey through the specifics of
girls’ vocational schools. Particularly, we were interested in understanding the ways in which
the degree of track differentiation and occupational specificity of the curriculum reflect on
education and labour market linkages and result in the reproduction of gender inequality.
Based on the above analysis of our qualitative research findings, we might surmise that
gender-specific vocational education that is offered in the GTVHSs poorly prepares young
women for the labour market, both in terms marketable vocational skills and basic academic
skills that would help carry them on to higher education. More importantly, the gender
socialization and gendered norms and expectations at school and home as well as the
prejudice (and perhaps discrimination) against women in the labour market seem to interact
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with each other to impediment gainful employment for these women. Overall, GTVHSs fail
young women during their transition to adult life as educated and employable individuals.
Thus, girls-only vocational education in Turkey becomes a form of gendered tracking, which
might curtail opportunities, rather than opening them up, resulting in an adverse school to
home transition.
What do these findings suggest in terms of existing social policies towards women in Turkey
and possible policy proposals? First of all, although statistically not representative, our
research indicates that general academic high schools rather than vocational schools might
give more opportunities to young graduates in terms of making choices regarding higher
education and employment. Secondly, gendered investment in secondary education seems to
have low returns in terms of improving women’s labour force participation rates and incomes.
Besides, it is likely to reinforce gender segregation in occupations. Thirdly, there is an urgent
need to create linkages between labour market demands and the quality and content of
vocational training. When the first and third observations are brought together, moving
vocational training outside the secondary education system and offering it on a gender-neutral
basis as a post-secondary certificate degree might be a noteworthy option to be studied by
policymakers.
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