WHO TAKES CARE OF THE CHILDREN? FEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION AND GENDER

Hande Paker and Gökçe Uysal

In this research brief, we focus on how childcare tasks are shared among parents. The distribution of childcare tasks is studied in relation to female labor force participation decisions. Our data shows that the childcare in Turkey is mainly determined by gender inequality. The sharing of childcare tasks is not only strikingly unfair from the point of women but also deprives children of their father’s contribution to their development. For example, even among the women in the labor force, half of the women state that they have the sole responsibility of changing diapers. This share increases to 80 percent when women who usually are doing this task are included. Similar results were found in the tasks of feeding and preparing children. As children grow up and hence childcare tasks change, the share of women mentioning an equal share of childcare tasks among partners, increase.  However, even in tasks where women report high equal sharing, the share stays below 40 percent.

doc. ResearchBrief202

pdf. ResearchBrief202