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W ORKING POOR WOMEN IN SERVICE SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF TURKEY

W ORKING POOR WOMEN IN SERVICE SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF TURKEY. Temmuz Gönç-Şavran Anadolu University Department Of Sociology E skişehir, TURKEY. Method. Aim:

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W ORKING POOR WOMEN IN SERVICE SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF TURKEY

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  1. WORKING POOR WOMEN IN SERVICE SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF TURKEY Temmuz Gönç-Şavran Anadolu University Department Of Sociology Eskişehir, TURKEY

  2. Method • Aim: • to put forward the economic and social difficulties that working poor women confront in the service sector in Turkey, • to examine how they experience poverty, • and what survival strategies they use. • Eskişehir: • a middle-sized city which is characterized by the dominance of white-collared population of 500,000 people. • Officially it has been rated as the sixth most developed city in Turkey in 2005. • A “service sector city”. “Working Poor in Service Sector in Eskişehir”2006-2007 400 interviews and 20 in-depth interviews with house-cleaners, baby-sitters (baby-old-ill caring), daily-paid taxi drivers and door keepers This paper will only focus on the data of house-cleaners and baby-sitters (n=200, all are women).

  3. Socio-demographic profile of the sample • Of the sample, 70 per cent have rural origins. • 44 % have peasant fathers. • The average age of the sample is 41. • Education • 7 % have no education8 % secondary school • 78 % primary school7 % senior high school • Occupations of husbands • 76 % are workers (waiter, clerk, door keeper, etc) • 13 % are self-employed (carrier, blacksmith, carpenter etc) • 6 % are state civil servants. • 4 % take widow pension. • The average income of their husbands: 480 YTL(£185)

  4. Labour force characteristics • More than 2/3 of the sample do regular work. • ¾ of cleaners, 80 per cent of baby-sitters work 8 hours a day. • Work duration is approximately 6 years at this job. • 47 per cent have no former job experience.The rest mostly have low paid informal job experience (dishwasher, ladle worker, cook in bakeries, office and store cleaners, workers in textile workshops). • Cleaners are more likely to have multiple employers whilst baby-sitters are more likely to have one employer.

  5. Intersections of Employment and Poverty 78% have no money left over after the expenses of rent&food 55 % have debts that they find difficult to pay off

  6. Deprivation 55 % have never been to a restaurant: “we don’t have such habits. We cook and eat what God gives us at home, what do we get to do with restaurants?” “Instead of giving my money to a dish of food, I can buy some chicken and eat with my children at home “ “As we get our money bit by bit, … all our life has to be ready cash, I can’t rely on tomorrow’s money”. 76 % have never been to a concert hall, 84 %have never been to a movie, 90 %have never been to a theatre : “If I go to movies or theaters, where can I find the money to make ends meet?” “What do you do if you pay for these things? You starve then”

  7. Need of a second job: case of “Melahat” MAIN JOB Caring two old people 5 full days in the week and until noon in Saturdays and Sundays , earning 400 YTL (£149) monthly. “the money that I earn isn’t even spentfor my kitchen. 200 to Esra’s (her daughter) bank account, 200 to Buket’s (her other daughter) bank account. Not even 1 YTL is left over from my salary.” ADDITIONAL JOB Cleaning houses at Saturday and Sunday afternoons, earning 25 YTL (£9) from each half-day cleanings. Is it enaugh to survive?“It has to be.” “I still don’t have a coat…for the winter. … Last year I spent the year with a ragged shoe, and this year with the shoe that the neighbor gave. I mean, I’m trying to avoid reflecting these things to my children…” 26 % of cleaners and 12 % of baby-sitters have additional jobs and earn 174 YTL- £64 monthly from additional jobs.

  8. SOCIAL SECURITY? Cost of hiring a worker with social security at min. wage :711 YTL (£274) Teacher:1036 YTL (£386) Police officer:1046 YTL(£390) Civil servant: 864 YTL (£322) Nurse: 972 YTL (£363) 64 per cent of the sample do not regard themselves as “poor”. Who are poor then? “unemployed people”, “people who do not have even a slice of bread toeat”, “people who are desperate to get social aids to survive” Of the sample, 68 per cent feel “lucky to have this job”: • “I am luckier than many people, more than 70 per cent of the people in my environment are unemployed, they can only find daily jobs” • “I thank God, there are many people who fail to find even this kind of job” • “no one finds a job easily, I know there is no future, no security in this job, but it is better than having no job at all”

  9. Weakening rural-urban ties • 78 % don’t receive food or money from their rural connections. “In the village, they think we earn a lot. Not only they don’t help us, they expect us to support them. ” • 72 % have not received any kind of help from their relatives or fellow townsmen through their migration process. • 41 % ‘have no one to borrow money’: “my relatives got nothing to do with me, my friends help me when I need money, my relatives do not”. , “I could borrow money up to… 10 YTL (£ 4). Funny, isn’t it? But the truth is this.” • 23 % found their jobs with the help of relatives and fellow townsmen, 36 % with the help of their friends, 10% with the help of employers. • Question: “after getting your job, how many relatives or fellow townsmen you helped to find a job?” The finding job average is less than one person.“I don’t trust anyone”, “They don’t help me, why would I bother myself to help them”

  10. Taking the Advantage of Informality: The Imaginary Sisterhood “I am a family member for them” “… we became like a family, like elder sister and younger sister” “My life has changed when I began to work for her (Ayten). She bought me five new coats, shoes, everything …” “she gave me 500 YTL (nearly twice of the respondents monthly wage) for the wedding of my children, they are a good family” “…She found a job for my son. God bless them” “I have never asked for increase. It is their initiative” “If they had more money, I know they’d pay me more” “I never ask. They fix it. I don’t make any objections” “It is up to them. If they make a pay rise, they do. If they don’t do... I go on working. Because I have no choice.” “They give me lots of things, clothes, foods. Sometimes they give me pocket money. If you consider these things, I get more of my wage.”

  11. Accepting and Refusing Aids Only 13 % receive governmental or institutional (public) aids: “It hits my pride. Neighbors … would see that I receive those aids” “There are poorer people, we have a job at least” “In fact I need, but I don’t want anyone to say that I’m poor, receiving aid”. Some are disappointed when they cannot receive support: “No, I don’t receive anything. I don’t receive even a pair of socks. Rich people look at every penny twice” “They say that they will give … but they forget it when the work is done” “I ask them to find a job for my son, but they do not seem to do so. The employers of some of my friends find good jobs for their grown up children, such as jobs in factories and offices. I ask my employers every single day, but they just don’t care me”. The help of the employer is seen from arousing from the intimacy: “She gives me gifts, she doesn’t give me something she wouldn’t like. We are like a family, we both know what each other like” “She gives me household goods and clothes. It doesn’t hit my pride … she gives quality stuff”

  12. Extra Works Cooking and serving lunch and dinner, washing the dishes, washing and ironing clothes, serving tea or coffee, preparing patisserie stuff for guests. From the 75 baby-sitter who does these extras like cleaning, cooking, washing and ironing, only 5 are paid extra money for these extra jobs. • BENEFITS: “No, I am not paid extra money. … but they gave jewels to my daughter at her wedding, God bless them.”; “No, they don’t make extra payment, but they give food and clothes”; “No, I’m not paid (for extra work), but it is not a problem for me, because we are like sisters”. • HOPE TO HAVE BENEFITS: “They haven’t given anything yet, but I am new in this house. My former employers used to give me all kinds of food and clothes”; • FEAR OF UNEMPLOYMENT: “I have to do what they want, who’d pay me if I sit at home”, “I work because I need money, it is not easy to earn money, it’s not easy to find a new flat to clean whenever you need”.

  13. patriarchy • 98 % are in the view that women should work at a paid job: • “you feel sure of yourself, working woman does not need anyone, doesn’t get afraid of life, women who don’t work are dependent on their husbands, they become like a fish out of water when their husbands leave them”, “By working, you learn how to stand on your foot”, “working women see and experience lots of things, meets lots of people, women who don’t work is at home and don’t experience these things”. • 42 % of the husbands objected their wives to work, ¼ of them still are not convinced. “He says we can eat less, you don’t have to work ” • “he used to prevent me from working. Now he is happy that I earn money.”, “He is pleased that I am working. He lost his job, what would we eat if I didn’t work?”. • Women’s Participation in family income: 40 % • 30 % give their wages to their husbands: “I even don’t know how he spends it, I only get a little part of my wage for my bus ticket” • 18 % spend together • 51 % do not give their wages to their husbands“I used to give my money to him for years. I regret now.”

  14. Future Expectations How will you make a living when you have to quit working? 88 % Dependent on sbd 11 % I don’t know 1% Retirement P. “I will go hungry. What can I do?”, “It will be very very difficult when I quit. … I buy food on credit. My son has to find a full time job for me to quit working. I can’t quit if he doesn’t bring home money, and shopping on credit has a limit. I think I am going to work until I die.” “I have to make some savings until that time. If I can’t, God knows” , “Now I am buying twoalthough I need three. Then I will buy one instead of two, I think” ,“I really don’t know that. It’s very hard, very hard.” 46 % are satisfied with their wages How long can you work? 25 % “ I have to work untill I die”

  15. Final Remarks • Labour power is their only source of income. • Their main survival strategy is their jobs, but these jobs: • Don’t give the power to get out of poverty • Don’t give the power to emancipate from patriarchy • The vicious circle of the reproduction of the poverty of the working poor: Two main reasons of the low wages of these jobs: • large amount of people seeking these kinds of jobs –rural-urban migration continues … • middle class wages in Turkey are not sufficient enough to increase wages and provide social insurance for these workers. • Working poor women are not the main cause of their own poverty. It is rather labour market mechanisms that cause poverty in domestic services. • The only thing they can do is to lighten the burden of the poverty on their shoulders. • Walking on a treadmill with hope, but reaching nowhere.

  16. Thank you.

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