The silent discrimination against headscarved professionals in the turkish labor market: The case of women in the banking sector

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KARAHAN H., Tugsuz N.

Sustainability (Switzerland), cilt.13, sa.20, 2021 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 13 Sayı: 20
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Doi Numarası: 10.3390/su132011324
  • Dergi Adı: Sustainability (Switzerland)
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Aerospace Database, CAB Abstracts, Communication Abstracts, Food Science & Technology Abstracts, Geobase, INSPEC, Metadex, Veterinary Science Database, Directory of Open Access Journals, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: banking sector, women, labor market, discrimination, social equity, headscarf
  • İstanbul Medipol Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

This study addresses the widespread discriminatory policies against headscarved professionals in the Turkish job market, by focusing on the female‐intensive banking sector. Although the number of professionals wearing headscarves has increased since 2013 with the removal of the ban on headscarves for workers in the public sector, we argue that significant ideological discriminatory practices and bias against these women still exist. To expose this hidden reality and uncover its dynamics, we undertook exploratory in‐depth interviews with 30 professionals from the Turkish banking sector, including both men and women. Our findings verify a severe underrepresentation of headscarved professionals in the commercial banking sector. Whereas, after 2013, state‐owned banks began, to some extent, to recruit women wearing the headscarf, private commercial banks have not amended their exclusionist policy towards headscarved white‐collar employees. Research findings confirm that in the Turkish banking sector, policies regarding the headscarf are still shaped by ideological corporate values. This study suggests that the appointment and promotion of female professionals in the Turkish banking sector are blocked by long‐established stereotypes and preju-dices, which stand in the way of inclusive practices supporting social equity, as well as diversity and the equality of women in the workplace.