Women with children are stuck at home

70 percent of women with small children are not employed in Turkey, UN Women's Lakshmi Puri saysSome 70 percent of women with children under the age of 6 are not employed in Turkey, compared to 29 percent in Europe, U.N. Women Assistant Secretary-General Lakshmi Puri has said, warning over the negative impact it could have on the country.

"In Turkey, female employment is 27.1 percent according to the Turkish Statistical Institute [TÜ?K]. 45 percent of young women aged 15-29 in Turkey are not receiving education, employment or training. That should be a major concern. That will hamper economic growth and prosperity in Turkey and negatively affect Turkey's competitiveness in the future," Puri said, speaking to daily Hürriyet ahead of the G-20 Summit to be held in the southern Turkish city of Antalya on Nov. 15-16. 
 
"This means women and girls are tied up with unpaid care work and domestic work, and therefore prevented from education and job opportunities," Puri said, stressing the importance of empowering women to reach those goals.  

The U.N.'s "2030 Sustainable Development Goals" (SDG) will be discussed at the G-20, and Puri said the most important targets of the SDG agenda were based on gender equality and empowering women all over the world. 

"One of the targets is valuing the care work and domestic work [done by women]. Since women have long been stereotyped as performing in most of the care work and domestic work, they have been prevented from education and job opportunities. They are seen as natural tasks for women. What we have been recommending in our Progress of the World's Women Report, also in our Justice Report, is you need to reduce that burden among men at home as well as creating a care paid economy. Member...