Amid Turkey’s ongoing economic turmoil, a series of recent incidents have highlighted poor pay and conditions experienced by industrial workers, with many of the effects felt most strongly by women.
In December 2024, an explosion at a capsule production facility in Balıkesir killed 11 employees, eight of whom were female. In July the same year, 146 workers, most of them women, were dismissed from the Polonez Meat Products factory in Istanbul after joining a union, sparking a six-month protest that ended only after a legal settlement.
Meanwhile, at a plastics factory in Kocaeli, two women who filed sexual harassment complaints (and two others who supported them) were fired in retaliation, inciting recent public protests. The worsening climate has prompted trade unions to call for greater protections for women workers, and an end to harassment and discrimination.
Speaking to Inside Turkey, employees at several different workplaces described the helplessness they felt during pregnancy, menstruation, and motherhood, as well as their experiences of on-the-job accidents.
Zehra, 33, has been working for four years at a car parts factory that employs 300 people. According to her, male colleagues blame low wages on the presence of women. “Even though we do the same work, men earn more. They protested the bonus given to women on 8 March [International Women’s Day], leading to its cancellation,” she says.
Despite being pregnant, Zehra has to stand at her machine for long hours. “Even going to the toilet is a problem. If I stop working when no one covers for me, I get a warning. After three warnings, you are fired,” she says.
Zehra adds that in her experience, factory conditions have worsened over the past year. “When I first started, we had 70 seconds to process a part. Now it’s 40 seconds. We are racing against machines. To keep up with the fast pace, we work ourselves to exhaustion, but our monthly salary is only 23,000 lira [£445].
“Previously, pregnant women were assigned lighter tasks. Now, even pregnant women are given heavy work,” she says.
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), women’s participation in the workforce was 35.8% in 2023, compared to 71.2% for men. Informal and insecure employment among women has risen steadily, with over 3.3 million women lacking social security coverage. Women earn 20% less than men on average, and unions report increased complaints related to health, safety, and discrimination.
Zehra recalls once leaving her machine unattended to go to the toilet and immediately receiving a warning. “The pace is so exhausting that you only go home to sleep, and even then, you have to cook and clean,” she says.
Şengül, a 23-year-old worker at a metal factory, tells a similar story. After a workplace accident, instead of support, her supervisor blamed her, saying, “It’s your clumsiness.” Speaking quietly to Inside Turkey so supervisors can’t hear, Şengül says, “We work 16 hours a day. Mistakes are natural when you’re exhausted, but we are insulted for them.”
She describes having to treat her injury herself with a napkin because her employers denied her medical care. “After so many hours of work, your eyes can barely see. Mistakes or accidents inevitably happen during packaging. Yet we are told, ‘You are stupid, you don’t deserve the money you earn,’” Şengül says.
Despite her young age, Şengül says she has no hope for the future. “At my age, one should have dreams. I have none. I just go to work, come home to rest, and return to work again. We only live to survive until the end of the month. There’s no time for dreams,” she says.
At Şengül’s workplace, women rarely get to see their families. They are given daily production quotas so high, she says, that they sometimes skip breaks to meet them. “Our wages are seen as a secondary income, so we are paid less than men. We are no different from them. We want the same rights. We don’t want to be insulted just because we are women,” she says.
Nazlı, a worker at a textile factory with 500 employees, says efforts to unionise were harshly suppressed. “Recently, some workers who unionised were fired after protesting the conditions,” she says.
Employers like Nazlı’s often prefer women workers because they require “thin and small hands” for delicate tasks. Nazlı explains that women have to manage both the machines and their responsibilities as mothers. “Our cafeteria is outside the factory. During our 30-minute break, we lose about 15 minutes just walking to and standing in line for food. We have to eat in a rush. If we return late, a formal warning is issued,” she says.
She also describes instances of physical violence: “A supervisor once threw an ashtray at a female coworker. The incident was covered up.”
Verbal and physical harassment is common, particularly when women raise objections. “We are constantly threatened with dismissal,” Nazlı says. Many of the women have children, and when they cannot find childcare, they are forced to bring their children to the factory.
“Sometimes there are groups of children on every floor of the five-story factory. During our breaks, we take care of our kids while keeping an eye on the machines. Can you imagine the anxiety? If we refuse overtime to care for our children, we are threatened with losing our jobs,” she says.
Menstruation also becomes a nightmare for women workers. Zehra explains that there is no menstrual leave anymore. “Previously, women could get a doctor’s note during their periods, but now there is a six-day limit on sick leave. If you exceed that, your salary is cut,” she says.
Nazlı describes how inadequate the facilities at her factory are: “There are only three toilets for 60 women. Using the bathroom frequently is forbidden. If you take sick leave during menstruation, your bonus is cut, which can mean not making it through the month financially. The infirmary is often locked. When a colleague fainted, we had to wait for the HR manager to finish a meeting just to access the key.”
Şengül echoes Nazlı’s account. “We are expected to work through period pain on the production line. When we ask the infirmary for medication, they refuse, telling us to bring our own,” she says.
Olcay Ozak, President of the Food Workers’ Union (Gıda-İş, affiliated with the trade union confederation DISK), tells Inside Turkey that women face more harassment than men at work. “Wage inequality still persists in many workplaces. When redundancies happen, women are often the first to go,” he says. Ozak also draws attention to the high rates of occupational diseases among women manual workers, including herniated discs, frozen shoulder, varicose veins, and anxiety disorders.
According to Ozak, a lack of union strength makes solving these problems more difficult. Among approximately 758,000 food workers, for instance, only 13 percent are union members, and only 11 percent of those have collective bargaining agreements. The number of unionised women workers is even lower.
“The key word is organisation. Only through organising can we change these conditions,” Ozak says. “Being unorganised and non-unionised leads to greater insecurity. Without job security, workers cannot even object to the worst conditions,” he adds.
Sevda Karaca, MP for Gaziantep for the communist Labour Party (EMEP), tells Inside Turkey: “The biggest profit for capitalists comes from labour itself. Women are seen as ideal for this model – more hours, more production, lower pay.”
Karaca points to examples from two factories in southeastern Turkey, where workers have told her that men’s break times are respected while women’s are often cut short, and that women face verbal abuse more frequently than men.
“Women’s labour is treated as if it has no real value,” she says. “Even if women work harder than their husbands, their labour is seen merely as a ‘contribution to the family economy.’ Employers act as if they’re doing women a favour by hiring them.”
The MP criticises what she says is a prevailing mentality in Turkey that exploits women at work by assigning them cleaning duties, reinforcing the stereotype that it is a woman’s “natural duty”. Meanwhile, women’s biological needs, such as menstruation, are completely ignored. “Whatever women experience in broader society, they also experience in the workplace,” Karaca says.
“Women’s oppression is not an isolated issue – it is rooted in class,” she adds. “Recognising the root of the problem points directly to the solution. Organised struggle against the patriarchal capitalist system is the only key to securing women’s rights and futures.”
Some names have been changed and workplace identifiers removed to protect the identities of the individuals interviewed. All interviews were conducted with informed consent